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Resistance (Paperback)

by Owen Sheers (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber (1 Nov 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0571239064
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571239061
  • Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 166,048 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
In an atmospheric alternative history of World War II, the Nazis invade Great Britain, but a false peace lingers in one remote Welsh valley.British author Sheers's sensitive fiction debut pits the harsh, lyrical beauty of the natural world against the unnatural, ultimately unavoidable cruelties of war. As his story opens in the fall of 1944, the Germans are spreading across southern England after defeating the Allies at Normandy. A long-planned British resistance operation is set in motion: Overnight, seven men with farms in the Olchon valley on the Welsh borders disappear, leaving their wives to manage the backbreaking work of tending crops and animals and to wonder unceasingly about their husbands' well-being. Soon cultured, English-speaking Captain Albrecht Wolfram and his troop of five soldiers arrive on a mysterious mission. Wolfram, skeptical of the Nazi Party's "quasi-biblical language" and "banal certainty," recognizes that this ancient, secluded valley offers him and his men a haven from the war. Instead of behaving like occupiers, they help the women through a harsh winter. Wolfram's warm friendship with a young sheep farmer, Sarah Lewis, is only the most prominent of the developing relationships that lead a young member of the resistance to discern signs of collaboration among the valley women. After a period of stasis, the inevitable rude awakening ensues. There will be no happy endings.Not really a conventional war drama, but an oblique, enigmatic ode to Welsh culture, landscape and loyalties. (Kirkus Reviews)

Daily Mail
'Mixing lush descriptions of the landscape with a very human story of war ... this is a sparkling debut.' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Resistance
82% buy the item featured on this page:
Resistance 3.7 out of 5 stars (31)
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Customer Reviews

31 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and very accomplished debut novel., 11 Mar 2008
By S. Barnes (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Resistance (Paperback)
This is an extremely powerful story set in the imagined backdrop of an invaded and Nazi-occupied Britain, from 1944 onwards... an alternative outcome for the Second World War which could quite conceivably have come true. After failed D-Day landings the German invasion begins in earnest on British soil and this story unfolds as the country gradually becomes another occupied territory of the Third Reich - herein lies its power and horror.

One morning, in one of the most remote valleys in the Black Mountains on the English-Welsh border, twenty-six-year-old Sarah Lewis awakes unusually late in the day to find her husband has disappeared. Suspicions are confirmed as all the women in the valley meet to find that all seven men in the valley have literally vanished overnight. The women fear that their husbands have joined an underground resistance group... and they are left to tend their farms, taking on the full heavy workload previously undertaken by the men.

Fear and mistrust envelops them when a German patrol arrives in the valley on an important mission, until an uneasy truce is formed from a mutual need for help during the harsh frozen winter months in this isolated valley of the Black Mountains. The men in the patrol are war-weary and glad of their respite from the fighting; the women are struggling with their workloads.... both sides have a tendency to forget that there is a war on, and this could be a very dangerous thing to forget indeed.

Owen Sheers (also poet) writes in a beautifully lyrical way, vividly bringing to life the Olchon valley. The power of the novel lies in its ability to shock, as the slow realisation gradually dawns that this outcome could have been the one to come true... An idea that stays with you long after turning the last page. I did hestiate before giving it 5 stars because I didn't find it quite as compelling a read in the first half, as in the second; the pace was slightly lacking. However, what it loses in pace it really does make up for in prose and description.

A good read for anyone. I'd especially recommend it for young students of the Second World War, if only to see the Nazi occupation of other European countries in a different light, and perhaps even bring their history more vividly alive.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic alternate history, 16 Mar 2008
By Lynette Baines (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
The women of a remote Welsh valley wake up one morning in 1944 and discover that their husbands have left their farms in the night. The German Army has invaded Britain and the men have been recruited for a guerilla resistance force to impede the enemy's progress. A German patrol, led by Albrecht Wolfram, is sent to the valley by the SS to retrieve an ancient map hidden there. The soldiers are exhausted, and, when the tide of war moves on, and they are forgotten, they are content to wait for further instructions. Gradually, the women, led by Sarah Lewis and Maggie Jones, come to an accommodation with the Germans. They work together over a harsh winter to keep the farms going, and become wary friends. But the outside world must intrude and the idyll will end. This is a beautifully-written first novel by a writer well-known for his poetry. The plot could have become a cliché, but Sheers avoids this, while creating a plausible picture of an alternative history of Europe.
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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An instant classic and one of the best books I've ever read. , 1 Jun 2007
By J. Owen "Arwel" (Liverpool, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Resistance (Hardcover)
Although not the type of book I'd normally buy (my authors of choice being Jonathan Carroll, Christopher Priest and Roddy Doyle), Resistance won me over from the first page. I cannot praise this novel highly enough.

Owen Sheers' debut novel is a truly stunning read. A wonderful story, filled with characters you really care about. Sheers' prose is poetic and he certainly deserves a nod, come Booker nomination time.

I urge anyone to give this novel a try - you certainly won't be disappointed. I'd also also recommend Peter Ho Davies' The Welsh Girl - another wonderful debut novel set in a similar environment.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written 'what if?' novel
This is a beautifully written novel, the author has also written poetry and I think this is evident in the style and language of the novel. Read more
Published 25 days ago by L. H. Healy

1.0 out of 5 stars Like Emmerdale without men - and drama!
I was really keen to read this, having read the exciting premise of invading soldiers on our home shore, and the implication of how women would react to this. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bunty

5.0 out of 5 stars It's hard to resist 'Resistance'
I first came across Owen Sheers, the author of 'Resistance' as the presenter of the BBC4 series 'A poet's guide to Britain'. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. T. Harvey

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent lyrical novel
I'm quite a fan of his poetry, so approached with a little trepidation, but was delighted by the lyrical beauty of much of this novel. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Zandini

4.0 out of 5 stars Resistance
Well written novel detailing how life may have been had we lost the war - not something I had really considered previously. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. Y. Haynes

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading for the quality of the writing, ultimately disappointing
You can tell the author's a poet. The images come thick and fast - in places probably too thick and fast for a novel. Read more
Published 7 months ago by K. Paver

1.0 out of 5 stars Rot
The cover makes it look like a Catherine Cookson and, really, that should have been the first warning sign but I ignored my instincts and persisted with this self-satisfied bilge... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Emil 22

3.0 out of 5 stars A valley side too far
In Resistance Owen Sheers re-writes the history of World War Two. Germany has invaded Britain. The United States, having suffered reversals both east and west, has retreated home... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Philip Spires

2.0 out of 5 stars Owen Goal
"Resistance" by Owen Sheers adopts the most familiar of alternative-history devices, the Axis victory in World War Two, as a platform for his debut novel about Welsh resistance to... Read more
Published 10 months ago by A reader

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb lyrical writing
Well, L K von Weber, I was another reader who cried while reading Resistance, and I'm glad that someone else felt the same. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Ms. K. Johnston

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