 What it Takes to be Human - Marilyn Bowering
The day after World War II is declared in Canada, Sandy
Grey’s father, a fundamentalist preacher, won’t give him
permission to fight. When Sandy’s attempt to oppose his
father and his upbringing turns violent, he is incarcerated
in an asylum for the criminally insane. There he meets
Karl, a German; Winchell, a veteran of the Spanish Civil
War; Bob, a homosexual who is singled out by a brutal
asylum attendant; along with Russians, Chinese and a
few hated Japanese.
Unsure how to convince his doctor that he is sane,
or of how he fits into the world within a world that is the
asylum, Sandy is determined to uncover an historical
miscarriage of justice in the hope that it will, by analogy,
prove his innocence. What it Takes to be Human exposes
the acute parallels between those who are incarcerated
and those whose lives are being torn apart by distant
conflict.
‘A great novel, as worthy as Lord of the Flies, Heart of
Darkness, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Papillon.
There were times when I had to put it down – to stand at a
distance from the story of Alan Maccauley and Sandy Grey and
grasp the gravity of their plight, the sheer insanity of war and
the injustices perpetrated on those who lack ability to prove
their innocence. Bowering does not seek moments to be
brilliant: those moments just arrive’ - Toronto Globe & Mail
‘The material is dramatic and at times lyrical, the story rich
and strange. Sandy is a kind of Everyman, his fine intelligence
beaten down in the name of Christian obedience. The irony of
his incarceration at a time of global bloodshed is abundantly
clear . . . This is no ordinary thriller, and the euphoria and
optimism of the ending feel like a dream’ - Quill & Quire
About the Author
MARILYN BOWERING is an award-winning Canadian
novelist, poet and playwright. Her second novel, Visible
Worlds (1997), was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and
nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Prize. It was praised by
the Independent as ‘a tour de force . . . a wonderful piece
of storytelling’ and by the New York Times Book Review
as ‘a vast, sprawling feast of a book’. Marilyn Bowering
lives in British Columbia.
Publication date for What it Takes to be Human: 26th July 2007
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