The Book of Guilt is an alternate history of a dystopian Britain, and the bildungsroman of a boy called Vincent. It is a mystery to solve, and a #YeahNoir thriller. It is a cautionary tale of how we accept the benefits of our society whilst being wilfully blind to their origins. It is a vivid description of the tyrannical cruelty of those in power, readily recognised from actual history, and current regimes.

The book starts with thirteen-year-old Vincent living in an old country house with his two brothers, Lawrence and William. They are identical triplets: “their light green eyes, their thick blond hair, their full, curling mouths. How tall they were for their age.” They are part of the government’s Sycamore Scheme, and they are cared for by three women who take shifts: Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon, Mother Night. The boys’ lives are regulated, quite monotonous, but not unpleasant – apart from the random illnesses the boys are prone to catching, known generically as “the Bug”.

The reader is soon suspicious of the Scheme, which includes others, both boys and girls, in other Homes. It is strange but understandable that they are being taught from The Book of History, and that their transgressions are recorded in The Book of Guilt – but why does Mother Morning record their dreams each morning in The Book of Dreams? And surely there is something sinister about the ageing Dr Roach, the founder of the Scheme and overseer of the boys’ health?

We read the boys’ Home was once full of others, but the triplets are now the only ones: “How much quieter the Home was without all the other boys, we said; how rowdy they’d been.” We learn some of the other boys were monstrous. And the triplets are not identical in their personalities; one can be reprehensible at times. It becomes clear the triplets are captive: “If we went outside early enough we could see the low sun shining through the pieces of glass, shards of amber and emerald alight in the quiet morning”. When the government brings in a policy change and the boys are allowed into the village on errands, the villagers are suspicious of the children and are often mean to them.

The boys sometimes discuss leaving the Home, and they live in hope of following their fellows once they are clear of the Bug. Following them to the Big House in Margate, where they will play on the beach and visit the wonderful amusement park. The boys are a mystery, as too is Nancy a young girl in another town, living with her parents but similarly confined and kept hidden from the world. The reader starts guessing: the existence of the children is somehow linked to pragmatic and self-serving decisions made at the alternate ending to World War Two. And their future is linked to the Thatcher-ite regime that is ruling Britain in the alternate 1970s.

The regime brings in another change, to be under the auspices of the Minister of Loneliness, and the tension of the story starts to ramp up – when first visiting the boys, the Minister: “Slipped a vegetable knife into her handbag.” To say any more about developments would be to spoil what is a tense and astonishing read. The story has so many resonances as it relentlessly unfolds – there are so many ways groups of beings are marginalised in our society, seen as ‘other’, seen as objects not subjects: “We were ever so relieved when we found out it wasn’t an actual boy.”

The plotting of The Book of Guilt is exquisite – the pieces of the puzzle falling into place, the reader feeling horrified but also empathetic towards many in the story. It is, like the boys’ days, structured into The Book of Dreams, The Book of Knowledge, and the Book of Guilt. Fittingly ending with an exploration of how society deals with its past crimes, and their victims. The overarching message: “It’s the community we need to worry about!”

The Book of Guilt is amusing in places, tragic in others, and very caring of its main protagonists. There is a tiny sliver of hope in the story too, as there are heroes. I really can’t speak highly enough about the experience of reading The Book of Guilt, it is going to stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend you read it too.