The Wake, Paul Kingsnorth
The Wake, Paul Kingsnorth
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The Wake

Author: Paul Kingsnorth

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 8 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/09/2016


Synopsis

In the aftermath of the Norman Invasion of 1066, William the Conqueror was uncompromising and brutal. English society was broken apart, its systems turned on their head. What is little known is that a fractured network of guerrilla fighters took up arms against the French occupiers.

In The Wake, a postapocalyptic novel set a thousand years in the past, Paul Kingsnorth brings this dire scenario back to us through the eyes of the unforgettable Buccmaster, a proud landowner bearing witness to the end of his world. Accompanied by a band of like-minded men, Buccmaster is determined to seek revenge on the invaders. But as the men travel across the scorched English landscape, Buccmaster becomes increasingly unhinged by the immensity of his loss, and their path forward becomes increasingly unclear.

Written in what the author describes as "a shadow tongue"—a version of Old English updated so as to be understandable to a modern audience—The Wake renders the inner life of an Anglo-Saxon man with an accuracy and immediacy rare in historical fiction.

About Paul Kingsnorth

Paul Kingsnorth's debut novel, The Wake, won the 2014 Gordon Burn Prize; was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Folio Prize, and the Desmond Elliott Prize; and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. He is also the author of two nonfiction books, One No, Many Yeses and Real England, as well as a poetry collection, Kidland. He cofounded the Dark Mountain Project, a global network of writers, artists and thinkers in search of new stories for a world on the brink.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Adam on June 16, 2015

"lif is a raedel for dumb folc but the things i has seen it is not lic they sae. the bocs and the preosts the bells the laws of the crist it is not like they sae" this is a good boc about a triewe anglisc man who was feotan the ingengas who cwelled harold cyng he is buccmaster a socman with three o......more

Goodreads review by Althea on March 02, 2015

After the Norman invasion of England, the French ravage and burn. One man, Buccmaster, returns to his home to find nothing but ash, and his wife's body amidst the ruins. He takes to the woods to become a 'green man' (an outlaw), with loud proclamations of his intention to raise a group to fight the F......more

Goodreads review by Terry on November 19, 2015

3.5 – 4 stars When we think of post-apocalyptic fiction we tend to think specifically of science fiction (or at least I know I do). Our vision is usually either of a near-future survival thriller about the fall of current human civilization into ruin (most often as the result of a nuclear holocaust,......more

Goodreads review by Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer on March 11, 2019

Outstanding novel about a landowner in Lincolnshire – Buccmaster of Holland – set in the years 1066-1068. Buccmaster, even before the Norman invasion, is apart from his fellow fen dwellers, still, like his grandfather but not his father, a follower of the Old Gods and a rejecter of the Church; also......more

Goodreads review by K.J. on September 13, 2016

Astounding. Written in a shadow version of 11th century English which is incredibly evocative, this is stark and brutal and magical. An invaded country, groups of men driven to the woods and fens, a land haunted by dying gods where Christianity is the first invader. Told by a magnificent creation, bu......more