"The Carhullan Army" by Sarah Hall

 'Sister' (we never learn her real name) escapes a town under authoritarian rule, where toiling but redundant workers subsist on meagre rations in overcrowded and squalid tenements and reproduction is controlled, to seek out Carhullan, the semi-mystical feminist hill-farm commune. But can the women learn to defend themselves if and when the urban Authority seek to extend their rule?  And in what way is the frequently tyrannical leader of Carhullan any more moral than the more anonymous rulers of the Authority?

This is classic dystopian fiction. What distinguishes it from the pack is the astonishing descriptions which are lyrical, detailed and original and which convey a huge amount of verisimilitude. The first quarter of the book is stuffed with these and the world-building is carefully drip-fed in but the reader is motivated to keep reading because ambiguous and perplexing hints as to what might happen next are provided. This is achieved because, although the story is told in retrospect, we discover the action as if the narrator is living through it, learning the mysteries of her new life bit by bit.

Some examples of the descriptions:

• "It was a wet rotting October when I left. In the town the leaves had begun to drop and their yellow pulp lay on the ground. The last belts of thunderstorms and downpours were passing through the Northern region. Summer was on its way out. The atmosphere felt as if it was finally breaking apart, and at night and in the mornings something cooler had set in. It was a relief not to wake up sweating under the sheet in our room in the terrace quarters, coming out of some hot nightmare with milky dampness on my chest." (FILE ONE COMPLETE RECOVERY)
• "Each year after the Civil Reorganisation summer’s humidity had lasted longer, pushing the colder seasons into a smaller section of the calendar, surrounding us constantly with the smog of rape and tar-sand burning off, and all of us packed tightly together like fish in a smoking shed." (FILE ONE COMPLETE RECOVERY)
• "The van disappeared behind the tangle of waxy green bushes lining the road. I heard it stall, and its ignition turn over phlegmatically, like the congested coughing of the town’s sick dogs." (FILE ONE COMPLETE RECOVERY)

Other selected quotes

• "You don’t fear possibility when you are young." (FILE ONE COMPLETE RECOVERY)
• "It was the smell of nature, untouched and original, exempt from interference. For all my weariness, it made me feel a little more alive, both human and feral together, and somehow redeemed from the past." (FILE TWO COMPLETE RECOVERY)
• "Carhullan could have been the gatehouse to Abaddon." (FILE TWO COMPLETE RECOVERY)
• "They were letting me break apart, so I could use the blunt edges of reason to stave in my mind, and the jagged ones to lance open the last blisters of sanity." (FILE TWO COMPLETE RECOVERY)
• "I’d felt like a ghost moving through the quiet loft of the farmhouse, undressed and trailing a sheet; a wisp, little more than vapour." (FILE THREE COMPLETE RECOVERY)
• "It is not those who can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the most that will conquer." (FILE FIVE PARTIAL CORRUPTION)
• "Revolutions always begin in mountain regions. It’s the fate of such places. Look around you. Look where you are. These are the disputed lands. They have never been settled. And those of us who live in them have never surrendered to anyone’s control. Nor will we ever." (FILE SEVEN PARTIAL CORRUPTION)
• "It was the anatomy of a fanatic." (FILE FIVE PARTIAL CORRUPTION)

A beautifully written novel which kept me hooked to the end.

April 2022

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God