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Published Mar 2012
554 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
What if Charles Dickens had written a contemporary thriller? In Under the Harrow, a group of Victorians live a semi-idyllic and unwitting, anachronistic existence, aided only by minimal trade-related contact with the supposedly plague-ridden Outland. They are products of an experiment that had become a lucrative, voyeuristic peep-box for millionaires and their billionaire descendants. But the experiment has run its course, and Dingley Dell must be totally expunged – and with it, all trace of the thousands of men, women, and children who live there. A few Dinglians learn the secret of both their manipulated past and their doomed future, and it is this motley group of Dickensian innocents who must race the clock to save their fellow countrymen and themselves from mass annihilation.
Under the Harrow showcases the kind of dazzling wordplay and narrative richness that have made Mark Dunn's novels and plays both commercially successful and critically acclaimed.
"This sometimes perplexing but well-executed tale winds up feeling like a surprisingly hardy crossbreed of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and Eric Flint's 1632." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Similar to Orwell’s Animal Farm, with a hint of Jasper Fforde, this story will make you think and laugh at the same time." - Booklist
"The language may be dense for average readers, but after a few chapters the story is engrossing enough to captivate their interest." - Library Journal
"Does it last? Readers are left guessing to the very end. This is a lively, thoughtful and beautifully written flight of fancy." - Kirkus
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