'A Scarlet Letter for our times' - Margaret Atwood
'This is a visceral and disquieting debut novel about the power of words, and should be read by anyone who uses the internet' – New Statesman
Join us to meet a new Bloomsbury author Thomas McMullan as he talks to Victoria Turk, features editor at WIRED, about the ideas, themes and characters in The Last Good Man, his taut, mud-spattered debut about shame, violence and redemption. Think Shirley Jackson's The Lottery meets Cormac McCarthy's The Road for a hint of all you'll find within this highly disturbing and original novel.
At this exclusive event, Thomas and Victoria will be in conversation for about 45mins, followed by 15mins of live Q&A where you'll have the opportunity to ask your own questions.
Join us in our virtual room to hear more about a strikingly original and troubling debut novel about the politics of how we police ourselves and our societies through language – The Last Good Man is a profound and timely novel for the frightening age of the Will of the People.
'A brilliantly unsettling parable about how we police our societies through violence, language and shame' – independent.co.uk
'An extraordinary and disquieting work of imagination, and as original as any novel I've read in recent memory ... The Last Good Man makes visible the dark matter of our troubled zeitgeist, and the cruelty that animates moral community' – Rob Doyle
'A clean, crackling novel ... McMullan updates Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter to today's sanctimonious climate ... An arresting debut about medieval justice that has plenty to say about the dangers of moral puritanism' – Metro
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What hope can we place in words once extinction is in the air?
Duncan Peck has travelled alone to Dartmoor in search of his cousin. He has come from the city, where the fires are always burning.
In his cousin's village, Peck finds a place with tea rooms and barley fields, a church and a schoolhouse. Out here, the people live an honest life – and if there's any trouble, they have a way to settle it. They sit in the shadow of a vast wall, inscribed with strange messages. Anyone can write on the wall, anonymously, about their neighbours, about any wrongdoing that might hurt the community. Then comes the reckoning. Read more >>
Tickets are £5 to attend live and £3 for a copy of the event recording to watch later.