achukareviews

Here is a difficult story to review. It’s aims and ambitions are admirable, as are much of the ways in which these are executed. There is a sense of unease, however, in the politicised comment against the countries who are arbitrating war. This is no criticism on Jarman’s skill as a writer, however, for the context of actions both in favour and against war – posited here through divergent siblings Tom and Hilde - must necessarily be read as allegorical and it is on this level that the novel succeeds best. Here is a book that is not afraid to pose difficult ethical and moral questions, that unflinchingly probes into the political motives of war and that provides a powerful and poignant plea for the role of active peace-weaving rather than the decimation of people.

Hilde and her brother Tom are relocated to a U.S. air force base when their mother takes part in women’s peace demonstrations in Iraq against the war. Hilde recoils from the Anglo-American culture of the camp and, somewhat unwillingly, becomes involved in an archaeological dig. Whilst there Hilde uncovers and removes from the site of the dig a gold brooch. So begins the interweaving of Hilde’s contemporary story of conflict and peace efforts and Mathilde’s earlier peace-weaving plight in Anglo-Saxon times, thus forcing the uncomfortable assessment of how far society has evolved in the intervening years.

This is the kind of book that not only requires reading, but that demands thought over the issues it poses, a book that requires discussion and that ultimately must raise understanding... There lies the foundations for change...