Book Review: Resistance

Owen Sheers' debut is irresistible

Owen Sheers' debut novel Resistance is imaginative and compelling - the type of book you will find hard to put down. Luke Cornish takes a look at this story of love and loss set in an alternative history

Title: ResistanceBook cover image - Owen Sheers "Resistance"
Author: Owen Sheers
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
RRP: $32.95

Sheers opens his story in September 1944 when, after the fall of Russia and the failed D-Day landings, a German counter-attack lands on British soil. Over the next year, the story follows the lives of a community of Welsh women, left to fend for themselves (their husbands have left to fight the invaders) and the German patrol that comes across the village.

Sheers, a 33-year-old Fijian native, introduces and humanises the elite German patrol, which has fought enemies across the continent but whose desire for peace and routine equals that of the English citizens.

When their mission takes them to a remote Welsh valley, they discover a community of hard-working women tending the farms but with no signs of their husbands or sons. Winter forces these two groups into an uneasy cooperation. Gradually they come to accept their new lives, but the question remains: what will happen when the snow has gone?

Sheers uses his award-winning writing style to great effect when describing the scenery of South Wales where he was brought up. Along with many side stories that reflect the region's local history and legend, Sheers explores the broader ramifications of what could have happened had the Axis powers not been defeated in World War II.

After finishing the book, I would highly recommend reading the afterword (something I rarely do). You will be rewarded by finding out the emotional story of the inspiration behind the book and meeting the ordinary men who were recruited by the British government to take up arms against a German invasion.

"I first heard about plans for a British resistance organisation one summer when I was working for a builder in the Llanthony valley," Sheers writes. "One day, Charles, the builder, told me how during the war some farmers in the area had been given caches of arms which they'd hidden in underground bunkers in the hills." The men were told that, in the event of an invasion, they would be required to work for 14 days - the total amount of time they were expected to live.

Sheers interviewed surviving members of the fraternity and discovered the intricate details of the resistance plan that makes the story so enthralling. Rather than being purely the product of one man's imagination, Resistance offers a very plausible description of what life in Britain would have been like had her shores been conquered by the German forces.

This is a very imaginative and interesting novel and I was genuinely surprised to find out that it was Sheers' first effort. The only complaint is that the ending did not quite live up to the rest of the book; but it did provide enough twists and turns to keep interest maintained through to the last page.