TWO TRIBES

RELEASED OUT NOW! 288 pages | Hardback/ebook

Author Chris Beckett

Publisher Corvus

As the aphorism has it, all science fiction is about the present. That’s especially the case with Chris Beckett’s latest novel, built on the idea of a historian called Zoe from the 23rd century, looking back at Britain in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

She does this via two diaries. One belongs to Harry, an urbanite, Remain-voting architect. The other is that of Michelle, a Leave-supporting beautician who lives in small-town Norfolk. They first meet when Harry’s car breaks down and he can’t get home. Forging a connection via similar tragedies in their pasts, the duo begin an affair.

Zoe decides to tell the couple’s story, a fragile and contingent romance where both are acutely aware of their differences in outlook, in the form of a novel. As a framing device, it’s an approach that’s only partially successful in that, even for someone whose profession involves looking back at a time when so many of us record our day-to-day lives in detail via social media, Zoe often seems too reliable a narrator, perceptive to nuances of class and tone.

Far more intriguing is the future world that Beckett constructs, ravaged by global warming and in which Britain has fallen under foreign influence. More on the relationship between different parts of society in this future may have made for a better book overall. Jonathan Wright