by Jim Crace
First published 2014
Two columns of smoke rise at dawn, too early in the season for hearth fires. Walter Thirsk sees flames surrounding his village land. Within days, authority shifts to new hands. Good and evil flip positions until they blur together completely. Walter must decode the changing rules to survive. Violence erupts throughout the community, driving people to their limits. Survival instinct battles against moral conscience and the desire for progress. The time period remains unclear and the village has no name, but the struggle feels universal. Jim Crace delivers a gripping story with lyrical power, establishing himself among major contemporary writers alongside Cormac McCarthy and J.M. Coetzee.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: moral-ambiguity, unreliable-narrator
Setting: France
Period: Unclear
272 pages · Paperback · Payot & Rivages
Content warnings: violence