In 'Scribe,' A World Haunted By Absences
Alyson Hagy's new dystopian novel paints an America torn apart by war and plague, leaving little of the past intact. It's a lean, hungry book that draws on Appalachian folk myths, mercilessly told.
Alyson Hagy's Scribe is a lean, hard wolf of a thing. There's something feral and panting about it. Vicious. It is sour and cruel and vivid, with a long memory and blood in its teeth. It gives nothing away.
It is run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptica, except not at all. Once upon a time, in Hagy's world, there was a civil war, brother against brother, and plagues that followed. A war became wars (plural). One country became a fractious muddle. Things fell to pieces, and the world — America, or one small part of it — is
