A darkly comic literary novel set in the near future. England has been partitioned and London is an oppressive place where poetry has been forced underground, theatres and schools are shut, and women are not allowed to work outside the home. A young couple, Lucas and Angela, try to escape from London - with disastrous consequences. Helen Smith was the recipient of an Arts Council Award for The Miracle Inspector. ‘Smith is at the very least a minor phenomenon.’ The Times
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The Miracle Inspector is one of the few novels that everyone should read, it's a powerful novel that's masterfully written and subtly complex. SciFi and Fantasy Books Helen Smith crafts a story like she's the British lovechild of Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick, only with a feminist slant. Journal of Always Reviews A beautifully written, and almost unbearably sad, depiction of a society's downfall. All-Consuming Books
About the Author
Helen Smith is an English novelist and playwright who lives in London. A member of English PEN and the Writers' Guild, she is the author of bestselling cult novel Alison Wonderland and other books and plays.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
If Patricia Highsmith wrote dystopian fiction but had more of a sense of humor, it might be something like The Miracle Inspector. The book opens in an England of the near future that's been partitioned and in decay. London proper seems to have the worst of it, walled off and Taliban-like in its social clampdown. Women can't leave the home. The Arts are off-limits. Men work meaningless bureaucratic jobs that only serve the faceless authority that keeps them all locked in, both socially and interpersonally. The book focuses on one couple, Lucas and Angela, who think they once loved each other but are really just strangers passing each other constantly. An aging and legendary underground poet, Jesmond, fuels their secret needs to escape to that sought-after heaven, Cornwall. They're all not especially likable, but they're always a little more so than those around them, chipping away at them. It works.
The saddest part might not be that they can't have what they want, but rather that they don't truly know what they'd want if they could have it.
I mention Patricia Highsmith because Smith deftly works in the dark urges and fears of Lucas, Angela and others in a way that only psychological mystery and espionage writers like Highsmith and Graham Greene do well. The story manages to remind of 1984, Brazil, Children of Men, The Road and other noirish dystopian tales yet manages to be original, partially through the dark and often subtle humor. Yes, I'm mixing films with books here, because I think this would make a good film script.
If I could give this 4.5 stars I would, but as we know we have to choose between 4s and 5s. I would have like to have had more setup and background about how England became this way, but that's also a product of me liking the story enough.
I'll be reading more from this author.
The saddest part might not be that they can't have what they want, but rather that they don't truly know what they'd want if they could have it.
I mention Patricia Highsmith because Smith deftly works in the dark urges and fears of Lucas, Angela and others in a way that only psychological mystery and espionage writers like Highsmith and Graham Greene do well. The story manages to remind of 1984, Brazil, Children of Men, The Road and other noirish dystopian tales yet manages to be original, partially through the dark and often subtle humor. Yes, I'm mixing films with books here, because I think this would make a good film script.
If I could give this 4.5 stars I would, but as we know we have to choose between 4s and 5s. I would have like to have had more setup and background about how England became this way, but that's also a product of me liking the story enough.
I'll be reading more from this author.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By P. J. Salisbury
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Kindle Edition
This is the third novel by Helen Smith. In The Miracle Inspector, the author's trademark humour leaks through the dialogue, in the wonderful verbal shorthand between the characters. Helen Smith's writing is confident and competent, always full of surprises. She has a real knack for using the unexpected to draw the reader into the story, creating tension, while maintaining a secretive intimacy.
The story is set in a dictatorship which is what London has become in a not-so-difficult-to-imagine future. Corruption is rife amongst its cliquey government departments, incomprehensible hierarchies and arbitrarily distributed privileges. Lucas has all the skills to be Winston Smith, the man who rewrites the news in Orwell's 1984, but here he is an inspector of miracles, though he has little hope of ever finding one. A subtext of disturbing menace is gradually revealed beneath a thin layer of urban domesticity. Women are forbidden to work outside the house and are permitted only to visit female relatives. Paranoia and mistrust multiply amidst rumour and the certainty of `disappearances'. No-one, it seems, survives to die of old age.
There is a constant tension between Lucas and his wife Angela - what he thinks she may be thinking is never what she is actually thinking. This causes the high-ranking official great unhappiness and he struggles with finding a solution. The humour serves to make the tragedy of miscommunication and misunderstanding all the more intense.
This story illustrates, with a curious beauty, how bewildering fantasy and irrationality can become the everyday experience of a population trapped in such circumstances; how far the human mind may retreat into imagination to defy and escape from the horrors of interrogation.
Subtly terrifying, this is the author's most important book to date. The novel is at least partially influenced by Helen Smith's work as a mentor to exiled writers at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. An antidote to complacency; if you feel at all contented with the world as it is, you must read this.
The story is set in a dictatorship which is what London has become in a not-so-difficult-to-imagine future. Corruption is rife amongst its cliquey government departments, incomprehensible hierarchies and arbitrarily distributed privileges. Lucas has all the skills to be Winston Smith, the man who rewrites the news in Orwell's 1984, but here he is an inspector of miracles, though he has little hope of ever finding one. A subtext of disturbing menace is gradually revealed beneath a thin layer of urban domesticity. Women are forbidden to work outside the house and are permitted only to visit female relatives. Paranoia and mistrust multiply amidst rumour and the certainty of `disappearances'. No-one, it seems, survives to die of old age.
There is a constant tension between Lucas and his wife Angela - what he thinks she may be thinking is never what she is actually thinking. This causes the high-ranking official great unhappiness and he struggles with finding a solution. The humour serves to make the tragedy of miscommunication and misunderstanding all the more intense.
This story illustrates, with a curious beauty, how bewildering fantasy and irrationality can become the everyday experience of a population trapped in such circumstances; how far the human mind may retreat into imagination to defy and escape from the horrors of interrogation.
Subtly terrifying, this is the author's most important book to date. The novel is at least partially influenced by Helen Smith's work as a mentor to exiled writers at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. An antidote to complacency; if you feel at all contented with the world as it is, you must read this.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Ian H
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having read the long list of good reviews, I was expecting a good book. And I was not disappointed, in fact it was more brilliant than I imagined. Most of the other reviewers have already covered the key aspect of this fantastic book, all it remains for me to say is that it was such a pleasure to read an authentic story line with intricate plot.
Whilst conventional writing wisdom holds that when story gets too dark, audiences tend to flock towards diversion, fluff and ostentatious glamour, but not this book. The author creates a riveting ambience and environment of the murky vision of the future that compels the reader to be absorbed deep into the time, place, characters' emotions and experiences. It offers a powerful lens for examining contemporary society and really push us (the reader) into a fundamental re-evaluation of our lives.
The book is a tender portrait of humanity floundering in the ideological clutches of totalitarianism - deliberately stark but hugely entertaining. Highly recommended.
Whilst conventional writing wisdom holds that when story gets too dark, audiences tend to flock towards diversion, fluff and ostentatious glamour, but not this book. The author creates a riveting ambience and environment of the murky vision of the future that compels the reader to be absorbed deep into the time, place, characters' emotions and experiences. It offers a powerful lens for examining contemporary society and really push us (the reader) into a fundamental re-evaluation of our lives.
The book is a tender portrait of humanity floundering in the ideological clutches of totalitarianism - deliberately stark but hugely entertaining. Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Miracles Are in the Eye of the Beholder
The Miracle Inspector by Helen Smith takes place 30 years in the future. London is no longer a democracy, but run by dictators. This future is misogynistic and patriarchal. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Georgia
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good book, just something missing ..
I actually liked the book but it felt like a snippet of a better story .. there weren't enough hints as to what the authority was, was this because the author didn't know? Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mushed
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well written
A chilling, very well written book. Somehow, it was all too easy to imagine that this dystopian world could exist. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Susanne
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Investigation Into The Possibility Of Love In Dystopia
What's your favourite cause of dystopian society? Nuclear apocalypse? Viral pandemic? Economic crash and burn? Read more
Published 4 months ago by Genome
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scary Future for Women In London
This book is set in London and women are forbidden to be out on the streets of London.
Lucas and Angela are a married couple in this book. Read more
Lucas and Angela are a married couple in this book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by mmbear
5.0 out of 5 stars
Miracle book
The Miracle Inspector
A fascinating book with completely new take on "futuristic books". The story was so cleverly unfolded, culminating in a chilling finale. Read more
A fascinating book with completely new take on "futuristic books". The story was so cleverly unfolded, culminating in a chilling finale. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Dorset reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tinder-dry Humour
Helen Smith's dry humour is so original and she's got such a light touch that I found I was always laughing a few lines later when the subtle effects struck home. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Martina Evans
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinatingly Dark Dystopia
The Miracle Inspector is very different to Alison Wonderland, another of Smith's novels which I read first, and this is part of what makes it so enjoyable. Read more
Published 6 months ago by bethanchloe
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Dark Side of P. G. Wodehouse Courtesy of Helen Smith
Welcome to the dark side of P. G. Wodehouse; those of you who are accustomed to his clever, wickedly funny writing will find much of it in Helen Smith's near future dystopian... Read more
Published 7 months ago by John Kwok
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Miracle Inspector
In The Miracle Inspector, I guess we are about 50 years in the future, in London, England. Women can't work outside the home and cannot go anywhere except to the shops and to... Read more
Published 7 months ago by JudithAnn
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