What a little gem A Saint in Swindon is. I'm not sure at what point a short story becomes a novella but in only 78 pages of text Alice Jolly has created a whole world that I was able to lose myself in.

A stranger arrives in Swindon and takes up residence in the narrator's B&B. He's an enigma, never coming out of his room, taking all his meals in there and simply spending his days reading. The dream! The mystery man devours book after book and ignites everybody's imagination. Who is he? Why is he reading so much? Why does nobody ever see him? Soon, people are treating him as a kind of saviour.

The story is set in the very near future in 2030 but it's an almost unrecognisable world as the effects of climate change wreak havoc on everyday life. The reader is treated to myriad literary references as the community becomes fixated on the stranger and what he is reading. I loved the parallels between the fiction and the reality for the characters and how the plots of the books seemed to mirror what was happening in their lives.

Not only is this book engaging but it has so many layers to it and I think there's a lot more to be considered within it than there at first seems. Taking it at face value it's a wonderful tale of the power of books in a changing landscape, but underneath there is so much more and this would be an amazing book group choice.

I really enjoyed A Saint in Swindon. It's a fabulous little book, with fascinating characters and a clever plot. ( )

A Saint in Swindon was born out of a literary experiment which is described in the book’s foreword and afterword. The Swindon Artswords Reading Group invited Alice Jolly to write a story and discuss the “work in progress” with them. The idea was that through this interaction with the author, the group’s members would understand better the process involved in getting a writer’s thoughts onto the written (or printed) page. As the project evolved, however, more of the readers’ thoughts, tastes and ideas started to feed into the story. The Saint in Swindon bears Alice Jolly’s name, but she describes it as a communal work “which we created together”. Fairlight Books have now welcomed the work into their fold – an excellent choice of publisher, given the pride of place novellas are given in their catalogue.

This project is interesting and laudable. What is possibly more surprising is that The Saint in Swindon is a fine work which is enjoyable on its own merits irrespective of the experiment which gave rise to it. It is set in a dystopian near-future, where rising temperatures and water shortage are becoming increasingly worrying. In the midst of all this, a strange guest arrives at Hunter’s Grove, a bed and breakfast run by Janey (the narrator) and her husband Phil. The man, who calls himself Jack MacKafka, barricades himself in his room and only asks to be provided with food and books. Neighbours and friends are intrigued, and a cult starts to gather around the mysterious figure. Meanwhile, the world descends into greater chaos.

As befits a novella conceived by a reading group, the novella continually ventures into meta-territory. Janey and her friends are members of a book club and they try to figure out the visitor through the books he reads. The novella references many novels (which are helpfully listed at the end). We learn about the genres favoured by the different characters – the genres are then promptly mimicked in the novella itself, which veers between dystopia and mystery, between comedy and Madame Bovary-style suburban realism. It sounds like a bit of a mish-mash and it is. However, the funny and likeable voice of Janey keeps the novella on course whilst raising some intriguing questions about the value of books and literature, particularly in times of crisis. Alice Jolly does not provide answers to these queries:

I’m not going to tell you what you should think about it. The white space is yours and I know you will fill it with your own questions, thoughts and images. Welcome to the conversation. Make this story your own.

The creative process continues… ( )

A Saint in Swindon was born out of a literary experiment which is described in the book’s foreword and afterword. The Swindon Artswords Reading Group invited Alice Jolly to write a story and discuss the “work in progress” with them. The idea was that through this interaction with the author, the group’s members would understand better the process involved in getting a writer’s thoughts onto the written (or printed) page. As the project evolved, however, more of the readers’ thoughts, tastes and ideas started to feed into the story. The Saint in Swindon bears Alice Jolly’s name, but she describes it as a communal work “which we created together”. Fairlight Books have now welcomed the work into their fold – an excellent choice of publisher, given the pride of place novellas are given in their catalogue.

This project is interesting and laudable. What is possibly more surprising is that The Saint in Swindon is a fine work which is enjoyable on its own merits irrespective of the experiment which gave rise to it. It is set in a dystopian near-future, where rising temperatures and water shortage are becoming increasingly worrying. In the midst of all this, a strange guest arrives at Hunter’s Grove, a bed and breakfast run by Janey (the narrator) and her husband Phil. The man, who calls himself Jack MacKafka, barricades himself in his room and only asks to be provided with food and books. Neighbours and friends are intrigued, and a cult starts to gather around the mysterious figure. Meanwhile, the world descends into greater chaos.

As befits a novella conceived by a reading group, the novella continually ventures into meta-territory. Janey and her friends are members of a book club and they try to figure out the visitor through the books he reads. The novella references many novels (which are helpfully listed at the end). We learn about the genres favoured by the different characters – the genres are then promptly mimicked in the novella itself, which veers between dystopia and mystery, between comedy and Madame Bovary-style suburban realism. It sounds like a bit of a mish-mash and it is. However, the funny and likeable voice of Janey keeps the novella on course whilst raising some intriguing questions about the value of books and literature, particularly in times of crisis. Alice Jolly does not provide answers to these queries:

I’m not going to tell you what you should think about it. The white space is yours and I know you will fill it with your own questions, thoughts and images. Welcome to the conversation. Make this story your own.

The creative process continues… ( )