Fugue For A Darkening Island (published in the US as Darkening Island) is a dystopian

Dystopia

A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...

 science fiction novel by Christopher Priest

Christopher Priest (English novelist)

Christopher Priest is an English novelist and science fiction writer. His works include Fugue for a Darkening Island, Inverted World, The Affirmation, The Glamour, The Prestige and The Separation.Priest has been strongly influenced by the science fiction of H. G...

. First published in 1972, it deals with a man's struggle to protect his family and himself in a near future England ravaged by civil war brought about by the failings of an conservative government and a massive influx of African refugees.

Plot and Style

The novel's story is told in an achronological fashion, jumping back and forth between several time periods. The protagonist, a former professor of English named Alan Whitman, is initially concerned only with protecting his wife and daughter, but is gradually drawn further into the broader conflict over the course of events. The narrative consists of three broad time periods: the early days of the conflict, in which Whitman goes about his life while being casually aware of the burgeoning crisis, a later period in which he and his family have been displaced from London and are travelling the countryside in search of safety and a final period in which he is travelling through heavily wartorn countryside with a group of male refugees, a setting which initially makes no mention of the fate of his wife and daughter. The narrative jumps back and forth between the different time periods rapidly, creating a stark contrast between the different stages of conflict and the nature of Whitman's character at these different points, as well as generating tension by not illustrating how the increasingly degraded state of affairs has come to pass.

Reception

Fugue For A Darkening Island was well received both upon release and in recent years, coming third in running for the 1973 John W. Campbell Memorial Award , while a 2011 review in Starburst Magazine stated that it is 'positively prescient in its foretelling'.