Widowland

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And so her alternate history took shape… a full-realised, richly detailed Britain where Hitler’s philosopher and ideologue Alfred Rosenberg rules as Protector and is using the country to fulfil his dream of building a ‘perfect society. And there are dark suggestions that the Coronation may just be the turning point for Britain towards something even worse. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. It is a truth rarely acknowledged that whenever something claims to put women first, another self-seeking agenda will be found if you scratch at the surface.

A very stylish and exciting counterfactual set around the coronation of Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson. The Leader, who we are led to believe is Hitler, is planning his first ever state visit to Britain to mark the coronation. The Author's descriptions of the different classes of women was superb and certainly gave rise to thought.She hides the journal in the wall of her apartment, as its discovery could result in a demotion of her caste level or worse. A sophisticated literary thriller, it is written with super-cool elegance and a keen eye for detail reminiscent of the best of William Gibson. I've put details of why this isn't for me in spoiler tags below and reveal the plot - read at your peril! Alfred Rosenberg, Britain’s Protector and one of the Führer’s favoured ideologues, has divided women into a caste system according to looks and racial profile: Gelis (named after Hitler’s niece) — young, attractive and intellectually capable — are the female elite, while Friedas, childless women over 50, are at the bottom of the heap.

Rose is tasked to go into Widowland, a desolate place where widows who are deemed worthless to society live. Everyone is busy in preparation for the coronation of Edward VIII and his wife, and the Leader will be visiting. So I'm really not the target audience for this book - I expected something more 'literary', and this is more of a Jolly Good Romp. The status of females is of particular interest to the Protector, who has constructed a complex caste system.Even though there is a Department of Morality, and adultery is supposed to be a criminal offense, a blind eye is usually turned to the higher ranking officials’ affairs. At the top are the 'Gelis', one of which is Rose Ransom, star employee at the Ministry of Culture, tasked with correcting the classics of literature to bring them further in line with the goals of the Alliance. For me, the events of 2020 turned out to be yet another example of how lives can be transformed in the blink of an eye, and people can adapt to changes that theyhad previously found unimaginable. Carey takes the great “what if” question of the twentieth century and gives it a wholly inventive feminist twist in this fascinating debut novel. One of my favorite parts of reading is that a book of fiction can send me Googling as fast as I can for more back story.

Other adverse changes affecting the people of Britain include more and more raw materials going to Germany and depleting Britain’s supplies of food, clothing material, and even paper. A fire spreads through a house, threatening to engulf the six tenants: a failed priest, an atheist neurosurgeon, and an obsessive photographer, along with a naturalist, a schoolboy, and a traveller.It’s good to have some knowledge of Hitler’s Germany when reading Widowland, but even then, I can guarantee that you will fall down rabbit holes looking up more information to fill in some blanks.

When I arrived at the appointed venue, however, it turned out to be Philip who, as well as having a dry sense of humour, was also an excellent mimic. There is something rather delicious that the most organised threat to Rosenberg's regime comes from a highly literate group of middle-aged women - these are not the Katniss Everdeens or Paige Mahoneys but instead a band of 'difficult women'. Yet every time I had to tick a box or fill out a form requiring marital status, up the word would pop, eventually prompting me to explore its etymology.

In July of that year, in the inappropriately sunny office of a London cancer clinic, an oncologist told us that he had stage 4 metastatic cancer and it was incurable. And as a committed campaigner against literary snobbery, I kind of hate myself for saying it but I could understand Carey's point that it 'requires discipline' to get through a six or seven hundred (or even more) page novel and if you're not in the habit, you're unlikely to try. in " The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly " Publishing This Week" newsletter.