Far North

A major new novel of retribution and forgiveness from the prize-winning author of The Paperchase and A Blow to the Heart.Every day I buckle on my guns and go out to patrol this dingy city. Out on the far northern border of a failed state, Makepeace patrols the ruins of a dying city and tries to keep its unruly inhabitants in check. Into this cold, isolated world comes evidence that life is flourishing elsewhere – a refugee from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to take to the road to reconnect with human society. What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling, stockaded villages enforcing a rough and uncertain justice, mysterious slave camps labouring to harness the little understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeace's journey also leads to unexpected human contact, tenderness, and the dark secrets behind this frozen world.Far North leads the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanity's origins to its likely end.

Prize history

• National Book Award for Fiction

  2009

  Finalist