LAND THIEVES

A historical novel that tackles the European colonization of the Western continent.

Watkins greets readers with an intriguing metafictional premise: He’s found three memoirs of his ancestors, which tell stories that he describes as being “in the heart of American sin.” He uses these tales to tell a darkly satirical historical story—one that offers its readers a scathing indictment of colonialism. The first section is attributed to Robert Watkyns, born in 1584 in Talgarth, Wales. In search of excitement, land, and wealth, Robert and his uncle James were the first members of the family to make the voyage to Virginia, leaving behind Robert’s beloved, pregnant wife and infant son. Robert is determined to convert or kill the local Indigenous people he encounters, whom he calls the “naturals,” who’ve been living on the land for a millennium. He finally arrives in Jamestown in 1608, but he’s soon defeated by an unexpected antagonist. His tale is the longest in Watkins’ narrative and is dominated by the years leading up to his departure from Wales and his eight-month journey; it’s also the most challenging to read, composed in prose that approximates the effusive, long-winded linguistic style of the period. Still, this story and the one that follows it are edgy, distressing, and insightful. Part 2 of the novel advances more than two centuries to 1873; it’s authored by the penniless Aloysius Beauregard “Bo” Watkins as a makeshift last will and testament. Born in 1805, Bo is the son of Col. Robert T. Watkins III, a wealthy plantation owner who fought alongside Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. Through Bo’s melancholy recollections and musings, readers effectively bear witness to the endemic mistreatment of Native Americans and the atrocities inflicted upon enslaved Black people. Bo, in his dotage, is at least revealed to possess a modicum of enlightenment with respect to the country’s shameful heritage. (The third of the promised memoirs, credited to Bob Watts, a CIA agent born in Illinois in 1925, is available as a separate work, not provided for review.)

An intelligent and morally relevant, if sometimes-dense, fictional examination of America’s past.