The. Carhullan Army - Sarah Hall

 The Carhullan Army won the 2007 John Llewellyn-Rhys Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the 2008 Arthur C Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction. Described as dystopian which I would agree with more than science fiction, (although utopian and dystopian fiction are seen to be sub genres of science fiction) and compared with Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale which I feel is a tenuous comparison, Atwood preferred the term speculative fiction for her 1985 novel, I think The Carhullan Army fits this genre best of all.

Much dystopian fiction creates a stylised and futuristic landscape which seems far removed, though not impossible, from current regimes but there are those which present as just one step removed from the climate we are navigating currently. These are by far the most chilling because such a reality seems possible. Such is the case with Sarah Hall’s novel. 

What also seems to set Hall apart from other dystopian writers is her penchant for the literary. The prose is sublime. The atmosphere is sustained throughout and the bleak, harsh Cumbrian landscape can be felt and smelt almost, the writing is so tight. You sense that the evocative descriptions of the landscape serve as  metaphor for the regime being lived in.

Unashamedly feminist in its intent the story is offered in the form of a report and statement from an unnamed female prisoner ‘ Detained under Section 4 (b) of the Insurgency Prevention (Unrestricted Powers) Act’ from the English Authority Penal System archive. The sections of the book are described as Files that are partially or wholly recovered. 

The prisoner in question is never known by any name other than Sister. She leaves a dominating regime which includes the most horrifying, compulsory contraception and a crushing marriage to seek out a secluded  assembly of women in a distant farm in Cumbria which she learned of some years previously. She  seems to have put the leader of the group, Jackie Nixon, on an indestructible pedestal.

But her arrival at the encampment could be seen as less than welcoming! In an incredible paradox of her initial incarceration which is harrowing to read, she’s released into a kind of  Arcadia comparatively. It is these paradoxes that also render the novel so compelling;  paradoxes of nature, character, preference. 

There’s also much physical suffering throughout the book frequently described in painful detail. Emotional suffering, too, is never far from the surface. But the story is one of a journey for Sister. As she changes physically - the shaven head, the muscular body - you sense she’s changing cerebrally and emotionally too. Throughout, she never seems to lose her admiration and desire to impress Jackie Nixon. Nixon is a wonderful creation, so focused, so strong, but also so remorseless.

It’s not a feel good read by any means and that’s putting it mildly. And there’s a kind of hopelessness that pervades the latter stages of the book. Because you sense that what the Carhullan Army is up against is impenetrable. And yet the very fact that there are people, women, who are prepared to put up the fight, to say no we’re not putting up with this has a curious kind of hope all of its own. 

What is also impressive is that although published  in 2007 it presents as very current, very immediate,  very fresh. it’s a book that will stay with you long after you finish it. There’s plenty to think about and plenty to admire regarding its concept and execution.