NONESUCH

A young woman attempts to thwart Winston Churchill’s assassination in this ambitious time-travel/historical fantasy novel.

Iris Hawkins, the hero of Spufford’s hefty yarn, is a free-spirited woman in 1939 London, eager to escape her humdrum secretarial job at a stock brokerage. One night she hooks up with Geoffrey Hale, a technician at the BBC’s nascent television division, which stokes the ire of Geoff’s colleague, Lall Cunningham, part of the city’s growing army of fascist supporters. Her payback is otherworldly, as Lall sics a wraithlike creature on Iris. And so Iris enters the occult world of magicians and learns that “an ancient system is awakening in the stones of London”: Statues on the roofs of some of the city’s oldest buildings serve as portals into the past. Lall intends to use time-travel magic to kill the prime minister and clear a path for Nazi domination. Meanwhile, Iris’ relationship with Geoff deepens and the Blitz begins. Spufford is a gifted veteran at high-concept alternative history, but ironically, the strength of this novel isn’t its flights of fancy but its meticulous depiction of London life under bombardment, especially for women. Iris strains to prove to her boss that she knows more about finance than he thinks, parries with John Maynard Keynes, and is determined to escape the confinements of post-Victorian womanhood. Spufford also nicely captures the low-level anxiety in the city, not to mention the dismal dining options during rationing. By contrast, the more fantastic elements of the story feel overworked. Spufford conjures up an inspiring climax and suggests a sequel—one that hopefully approaches the material with a lighter touch.

A magical, clever, sometimes convoluted reimagining of London under attack.