The Wake

'A work that is as disturbing as it is empathetic, as beautiful as it is riveting' Eimear McBride, New Statesman

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, the unforgettable Buccmaster, a proud landowner, bears 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 a 'shadow tongue' - a version of Old English understandable to the modern reader -The Wake is a revelatory tale of faith, land, violence and history. It is both a startling vision of the past and a resonant warning for the future.