Award-winning British author AL Kennedy, acclaimed for works like “Paradise” and “Day,” makes a long-awaited return with her ambitious 10th novel “Alive in the Merciful Country.” Set against the tumultuous backdrop of post-Brexit Britain, the book grapples with the personal and political dimensions of activism, betrayal, and the struggle to hold onto hope in a world unmoored.
At the center of the novel is Anna McCormick, a London primary school teacher navigating the challenges of remote learning during the 2020 Covid lockdowns. As she strives to maintain a sense of normalcy and optimism for her young pupils, Anna battles her own demons – the lasting trauma of a romance with an undercover cop that shattered her faith in activism and her ability to trust.
But the past will not stay buried. When Anna encounters her former lover at the trial of her activist colleagues decades later, old wounds are ripped open. Soon after, a mysterious manuscript arrives at Anna’s doorstep – the supposed confessions of the man who betrayed her, now styled as a vigilante assassin targeting the corrupt heart of the Conservative establishment.
A Hall of Mirrors
Presented in a kaleidoscopic mix of Anna’s raw, impassioned journal entries and excerpts from her ex-lover’s unreliable accounts, “Alive in the Merciful Country” sets up an intricate hall of mirrors. Is the manuscript a genuine attempt at atonement, a self-serving web of justifications, or perhaps a metaphorical reckoning with the monstrous betrayals of Britain’s political class? Kennedy leaves the ultimate judgement to the reader.
Through this fractured narrative, she poses probing questions about the limits of activism in the face of state surveillance and subversion, the scars of intimate and institutional abuse, and the fragile resilience of hope in times of crisis. While Anna’s sections crackle with humanity and mordant wit, the stylized, circuitous repetitions of her ex-lover’s accounts may test some readers’ patience.
Urgency and Unevenness
Indeed, for all its urgency and moral force, the novel can be uneven in its execution. Kennedy’s activist characters often feel more like mouthpieces than fully realized individuals, and the cataloging of Tory misdeeds, while cathartic, veers into caricature at times.
Yet there is still much to admire in Kennedy’s unflinching confrontation with the psychic and social fallout of a nation’s self-inflicted wounds. In Anna’s hard-won epiphanies and stubborn quest for redemption, both personal and political, Kennedy etches a moving portrait of the work of repair that faces Britain in the aftermath of the Brexit debacle and the Covid crisis.
“Very dark people are at work here,” Kennedy has said of the state of her nation. “Alive in the Merciful Country” meets that darkness with quiet fury and fragile hope.
A Timely Reckoning
For readers willing to brave its dense thickets of trauma and betrayal, the novel offers a timely reckoning with the challenges of activism and the struggle for personal and political renewal in an age of chaos. As Britain faces yet another period of upheaval, AL Kennedy’s latest is an imperfect but impassioned reminder of the importance of grappling with hard truths and holding onto even harder hopes.
