''The Wake'' is a 2014 debut novel by British author
Paul Kingsnorth
Paul Kingsnorth (born 1972) is an English writer who lives in the west of Ireland. He is a former deputy-editor of ''The Ecologist'' and a co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project.
Kingsnorth's nonfiction writing tends to address macro themes l ...
.
Written in an "imaginary language", a kind of hybrid between
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
and
Modern English,
[ it tells of "Buccmaster of ]Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
",[ an Anglo-Saxon freeman forced to come to terms with the effects of the ]Norman Invasion
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...
of 1066, during which his wife and sons were killed. He begins a guerrilla war against the Norman invaders in the Lincolnshire Fens.
Kingsnorth financed the work through crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
on the platform Unbound after he did not receive support through a mainstream publisher, and he did not initially expect a large response to his work. However, the book was longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
and won the 2014 Gordon Burn Prize
Gordon Burn (16 January 1948 – 17 July 2009) was an English writer born in Newcastle upon Tyne and the author of four novels and several works of non-fiction.
Background
Burn's novels deal with issues of modern fame and faded celebrity as l ...
. The film rights were acquired by actor and director Mark Rylance
Sir David Mark Rylance Waters (born 18 January 1960) is a British actor, playwright and theatre director. He is known for his roles on stage and screen having received numerous awards including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Laurenc ...
, and he read a section of the book in 2014 at the Hay Festival
The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...
.
See also
* Anglish
References
2014 British novels
Books written in fictional dialects
Novels set in Anglo-Saxon England
Novels set in the 11th century
Crowdfunded books
2014 debut novels
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