Nominated for the John C Campbell Memorial Award. Sidewise Award for
Alternate History. World Fantasy Award.
In this fine work of full-length fiction by award-winning author Ian R.
MacLeod, a chilling alternate history unfolds.... An elderly English
historian, swept along with the rest of his country by the march of
history, sways between reminiscences of his life's true love and his
efforts--in his own fumbling way--to change his nation's course.
In this tale, Britain has lost the First World War and turned to
fascism. As a homosexual, the narrator suffers both the fear of
repression and the loss of his lover to the fascist government, while
the ordinary people of the rest of the country enjoy shiny modernity
and, with it, briefly, the envy of other nations.
MacLeod's tale shows convincingly that no one individual or country is
immune from totalitarianism, and the identity of his British dictator
forms a twist that, both beguilingly and deceptively, never stops
turning.