I’ve always enjoyed looking for lesser-known books, but lately I’ve been hungering for them. I still enjoy the heavy epic stories that come out every month, but I need breaks. Enter A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy, a fantasy story about a collection of anarchist communities fighting for their survival against a larger empire. It balances its small perspective well with its larger philosophical scope touching on one of the most human of issues, freedom.
The Borolin Empire is going through some growing pains once again. Its hungry eyes are set on the mountains that the Hron call home. Dimos Horacki, a Borolian journalist with a history of muckraking, is sent to the front to report on the war. Through a military mishap, he separates from the imperial forces and finds himself in the hands of the anarchists of Hron. Sensing an opportunity, Dimos follows the lively bands that resist the Empire, learning their way of life. Starting amongst the villages, he eventually makes his way to the city of Hronople, populated by thousands of refugees. Meanwhile, war rages all around, and Dimos has no choice but to get caught up in the fight.
I picked this book up years after reading The Fantasy Hive’s insightful review.. Initially, I was afraid to pick it up, thinking I would be out of my depth. But Killjoy very quickly dissuaded me of that notion. Her writing is simple, concise, and targeted. It occasionally reaches deep into your soul and reminds you that you, too, can be human. The choice to write it from the perspective of a journalist also eases the reader into the story. I came in expecting academic treatises on anarchism and instead encountered people living their lives, full of agency. This perspective allows Dimos to ask the dumb questions we all are taught to ask in the American schooling system. And the people of Hron answer them, simply and effectively all while lightly chiding the childish nature of them. It’s not perfect, but I found myself laughing at these interactions as they chipped away at the notions we’ve grown up with, especially the ones centered around the profit motive and the financial incentives that govern our daily lives.
I think most people who know me would tell you that I’ve never really been a fan of the way our lives are lived within our modern capitalist nightmare, and that’s putting it lightly. And where most books I like and try to talk about here often dive into “this shit fucking sucks,” it’s rare to read a fictional story that tries to grapple with an alternative way of living. Yes there are the great, but it’s also nice to find stories where authors want to engage in this conversation today. A Country of Ghosts does this very thing, positing a society of collective individuals that have to deal with an encroaching empire while treating all of its people like adults. Killjoy approaches this utopia from a set of starting values that spin out into realistic human relations. There are tensions within and between the various villages and towns that Dimos explores. He encounters people who have broken social contracts in the pursuit of their own sense of freedom, people still viewed as Hron, but exiled from the larger body since they violated others’ ability to live.
Hron is not perfect, its people aren’t perfect and have their own emotional messes to contend with, outside the threat of the Borolian army. Dimos can’t help but get wrapped up in them, both from a journalistic perspective and a personal one. He wants to document their lives but in doing so becomes a part of their effort. He loves, he hates, he fights, he flirts, he learns and through all of it he begins to live. There are moments of tragedy and sadness, paired with joy, festivities and that tantalizing call of love. Where I think Killjoy succeeds in her portrayal is that all of the normal human shit still happens. People die, children play, and someone still has to do the goddamn dishes. But the overlaying structure of “I gotta make money for someone else, so they can give me some,” is not an amplifying stressor in the lives of the Hron. Life would still be hard regardless, but at least you can be a total human being while living.
One thing I want to point out before finishing this review is that I try to read a lot of political theory, history, and non-fiction books that relate to everything Killjoy explores in A Country of Ghosts. So a lot of what is proposed in the book isn’t news to me, but where I am sold on telling you about it is that Killjoy so succinctly and concisely presents a way of life that is fundamentally different from our current predicament. You can be who you want, and you have certain obligations to the people around you. If you overstep, there are consequences besides jail or financial reward. Some may be put off by how contemporary some of the subjects are, and how modern the conversations sound, but for me it felt just right. It’s a book that recognizes what it’s doing and is not shy about it.
A Country of Ghosts is just one look at another mode of living. It examines our relations to each other, and the obligations we are taught to hold most sacred while providing an alternative. An alternative that is not glamorous, or utopian in the usual sense, but an alternative that recognizes the right of everyone to live their life out from under the boot heel of those who would oppress. Also, I totally buried the lead here, but it’s got a natural queerness about it that goes unquestioned through the whole of the book. So if you need a break from the epic, worldbuilding heavy door stoppers, venture out into the mountains and find out who you want to be.
Rating: A Country of Ghosts – Well worth the journey
-Alex
