26 November 2007
James Jauncey's Scottish dystopia -- The Witness
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James Jauncey imagines a brutal future of the Scottish highlands in his new novel for young adults, The Witness. The all-powerful Department has passed the One Acre Act, giving the government power to dispossess the owners of any plot of land larger than a single acre. Guerrilla warfare has broken out as landlords have joined with crofters and stalkers in a resistance movement.
Eighteen-year-old John MacNeil witnesses a village massacre by Department troops. In its aftermath, he finds an abandoned child, Ninian, and is compelled by forces within and without to take him under his wing. It's fast-paced and violent and asks all kinds of moral questions, and James Jauncey joins the Book Show from a BBC studio in the heart of Edinburgh.
Guests
James Jauncey
Scottish writer and board member of the Edinburgh International Writers' Festival.
Publications
Title: The Witness
Author: James Jauncey
Publisher: Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan
ISBN-13: 978-0330447133
Presenter
Ramona Koval
Producer
Michael Shirrefs
