Shannon
Hillsborough
A review of this — 14 weeks ago
One of the the most complex, multi-layered and absorbing novels I’ve read, which would definitely benefit from multiple rereadings.
Set in an alternate history where the Plague wiped out 99 percent of Europe’s population instead of just one-third – effectively decimating white, Christian culture – the novel follows 700 years of history as Arab, Asian and Native American cultures flourish and the religions of Buddhism and Islam spread throughout the world. One assumption the novel makes is that reincarnation is real, so the same set of characters (a jati, or group of souls linked by fate) come together in life after life and either witness or instigate the great events, scientific discoveries, political movements and philosophical writings of human history.
This novel is more than just an entertaining series of adventures, though. It has a lot to say about the human condition, religion, philosophy and history itself. How do cultures rise and fall? What small events can create or destroy empires? The section that tells the story of the earth’s world war – called the Long War and lasting more than 70 years – is one of the most harrowing depictions of war and its aftermath I have ever read. This is a weighty book, with a lot of big ideas to captivate and absorb the reader through many visits to this alternate – but very realistic – history of humankind.
