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Sign up todayWidowland
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Learn moreAn alternative history with a strong feminist twist, perfect for fans of Robert Harris’s Fatherland, Christina Dalcher’s Vox, and the dystopian novels of Margaret Atwood
To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edited literature.
London, 1953, Coronation year—but not the Coronation of Elizabeth II.Thirteen years have passed since a Grand Alliance between Great Britain and Germany was formalized. George VI and his family have been murdered, and Edward VIII rules as King. Yet, in practice, all power is vested in Alfred Rosenberg, Britain’s Protector. The role and status of women is Rosenberg’s particular interest.
Rose Ransom belongs to the elite caste of women and works at the Ministry of Culture, rewriting literature to correct the views of the past. But now she has been given a special task.
Outbreaks of insurgency have been seen across the country: graffiti daubed on public buildings. Disturbingly, the graffiti is made up of lines from forbidden works, subversive words from the voices of women. Suspicion has fallen on Widowland, the run-down slums where childless women over fifty have been banished. These women are known to be mutinous, for they have nothing to lose.
Before the Leader arrives for the Coronation ceremony of King Edward and Queen Wallis, Rose must infiltrate Widowland, find the source of this rebellion, and ensure that it is quashed.
C. J. Carey is the pen name of Jane Thynne, author of the Clara Vine series. She was born in Venezuela, went to school in London, and then to Oxford University, where she read English. She later worked as a BBC journalist before moving to Fleet Street and working at the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, and The Independent, as well as numerous magazines. She lives in London with whichever of her three children are around. Widowland is the first novel she’s written as C. J. Carey.
Esther Wane is a British actor and voiceover artist who, after a career in finance, fulfilled her childhood dream of attending drama school in London. She has narrated audiobooks in many genres, including politics, romantic fiction, and children's literature. When not doing voiceover work or acting, she can be found browsing bookshops. She currently resides with her family and collection of books in Hertfordshire, London.
Reviews
“Storytelling at its best! I rarely come across a book I can’t put down but I devoured this one. It was The Handmaid’s Tale but even more closely tied to the reality of our world, showing what happens to women under a totalitarian regime.”
“Fatherland meets The Handmaid’s Tale in C. J. Carey’s compelling what-might-have-been new novel…Widowland is a compulsive, terrifying read.”
“In Widowland, C. J. Carey has written an electrifying, Orwellian dystopia with a thrilling feminist twist. Carey renders a post-WWII alternative history that demonstrates the resilience of women and their ability to find light even in the darkest places. In Carey’s expert hands, one can truly believe that literature can change the world.”
“C. J. Carey takes the great ‘what if’ question of the twentieth century and gives it a wholly inventive feminist twist…Tense, thought-provoking, and terrifying, Widowland is about a woman’s search for truth in a world bent on destroying all traces of it.”
“This utterly engrossing exploration of the subversive power of literature―part thriller, part dystopian fiction, part feminist cautionary tale―is a rollicking homage to women who refuse to accept being less. It could not be more timely.”
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