The Peace Machine

released 31 May 224 pages | Hardback

Author Özgür Mumcu Publisher Pushkin Press

In 1914, HG Wells argued that the conflict we now call World War I would be “the war that will end war”, because (to cut a 99-page pamphlet short) it’d make everyone realise that fighting was more trouble than it was worth. Not, of course, one of Mr Wells’s more successful predictions. But the idea of WWI as a major historical turning point – what if it had gone differently? – has been imaginative catnip for writers ever since. Turkish journalist Özgür Mumcu’s debut novel takes this idea and turns it into a darkly funny absurdist romp.

Feckless scion of wealth Celal Bey isn’t an obvious candidate to change the world; he spends his days writing bestselling erotic fiction and occasionally getting challenged to duels. All this changes when he meets a group of idealists with a plan to end war and decides to join them – albeit mostly because he has the hots for one of their number, Parisian illustrator Céline.

The plan is a masterpiece of convoluted silliness: it involves a Serbian underground resistance movement, a travelling circus, an electromagnetism machine, and a number of fake moustaches. It’s also only lightly science fictional and there’s no deep characterisation going on here, but this is a tale that’s as enjoyable as it is bonkers. Nic Clarke