8stitches 9lives's Reviews > Cwen

Cwen is a powerful feminist alternative future novel in which a group of women explore their past and present whilst presenting their bold visions of the future featuring a storm, a mysterious death, a band of women and a remote island where anything is possible. An archipelago off the east coast of Britain comes under female rule. Using resources traditionally the preserve of men — inspired by ancient British stories of islands where women ran society and controlled the climate — the women quietly take charge of the islands’ education system, laws, money, businesses and civic institutions as well as the way children are to be raised. Eva Levi was the one who founded the community and is at the centre of the revolution, but she has recently disappeared. She was last seen venturing out on the sea with her small boat on a brisk northeasterly wind and has never been seen since. What follows is an investigation into her vanishing act in which witnesses and those who knew Eva are asked to provide evidence. People are rightly concerned. But a revolution by stealth is not enough for Cwen, the mythical spirit of the islands. She has been here longer than the civilisation she has come back to haunt.

Her name has ancient roots, reaching down into the earth and halfway around the world. The clouds are her children, and the waves; and the islands she inhabits have always belonged to women. Now she has returned to hold them to account. Following in Cwen’s wake, young climate activists stage a rebellion against the patriarchy. A grandmother bequeaths her sons’ inheritance to a feminist foundation. And a public inquiry is launched into the archipelago’s outrageous mutiny. This a compelling piece of literary fiction, but I must admit that the format left quite a lot to be desired. It was muddled and difficult to engage with at times, but I was enjoying the actual content of the novel, so I continued and luckily I got used to the way in which it was written. The bulk of the story is in the form of an investigation into the missing Eva and is a portrait of a world on the cusp of change. Exploring female power and female potential, both to hurt and to harm, as well as patriarchal structure, oppression, sexuality and gender, it reaches deep into Britain’s matriarchal past, to ask how radical we might be, if given the chance.