Stop talking about coconuts!

A novel is released into the wild

A little later than planned (other matters had to be attended to), Just Like You has at last been unshackled from Substack and is now out in the big, wide world.

It’s available from many online stores. I won’t list all of them because that would be dull and tedious, but here are the three I expect will be most significant:

Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
Barnes & Noble

It joins two previous works, the novel The Second Queen of Hirta and the collection of essays and short stories Shaking Hands with the Whole of Finland (Amazon US links here, but again there are many other options).

From the initial conception, and ever since, Just Like You seemed like the appropriate title, and it was only very late in the process that I realised it has been used many times before. I can only echo P.G. Wodehouse, who found himself in the situation with his 1929 novel Summer Lightning and expressed the hope that it would one day appear in a list of the hundred best books with that name.

“But what,” the impatient reader cries, “is Just Like You about?” That’s an excellent question, and I’ll answer it by quoting the synopsis and some short extracts below. If, after reading them, you decide to download the book (at, frankly, minimal expense), that would be fine with me.

Synopsis

In a primitive, post-apocalyptic land, a lone hunter is forced to lead their people in a battle of kindness against evil.

Luxalia and the Woodlands are very different communities on a large island which, as far as its inhabitants know, is the only place in the world where anyone lives.

The Luxalian society is the more technologically advanced of the two, and is held together by a form of religion. In the Woodlands, there is almost no society at all, and people survive by hunting and gathering.

Qama, who hopes to raise a family one day but is content for now to live alone, is a mostly typical Woodlander, unusual only in that they are non-binary - something which is not commented on or even thought about by the people they normally meet.

Peace on the island is shattered when the Luxalians decide to start mining in the Woodlands, creating an enormous threat to the area and everyone who lives there.

Very unwillingly, Qama is persuaded to lead the defence of the region, and becomes a hate figure among the Luxalian leaders as a result.

Valuable support comes from Qama's friend Perens, her ex-boyfriend Landro (initially an enemy of Qama until Perens tells them both to behave), the other Woodland hunters and a mysterious old man whose identity shocks everyone when it is revealed to them.

Even with their help, however, the situation becomes hopeless when the Luxalians bring new technology to the battle. The Woodlanders are unable to respond. Their way of living will soon be impossible. They cannot win.

Or perhaps they can . . .

Extracts

Perens turned round and walked a little way across the clearing. She stopped and looked back with the intention of waving to Qama, but they had already disappeared into the forest. She looked at where they had been, decided she had just met the most interesting person in the whole of the Great Land, then turned again and headed for home.

* * * * *

The fish died during the night. Its useless little life was commemorated in a quiet funeral a few paces from the house the following morning. You were too sad to go to the beach that day.

* * * * *

When everyone had eaten and the pathetic remains of the once noble eagle had been thrown away, Qama shook Quernali’s shoulder gently to wake him up. Quernali gave a great gasp, exhaled slowly and fell, no longer breathing, to one side. The others looked at him in silence for a moment, then carried his body to a nearby pool where, as they had done with Salara’s at Lake Arodon, they offered it back to the nature which had brought it to life with such magical care just sixteen years earlier.

* * * * *

“Stop talking about coconuts! This isn’t about coconuts.”

* * * * *

“Thank you for allowing me into your lives, and for making the last part of mine so special. You are brave, honourable and kind, the best things anyone can be. I leave this world loving you more than I could ever say.”