The Alteration
The Alteration by Kingsley Amis, published by Penguin in 1988, presents a unique exploration of alternative history set in a world where the modern era resembles a medieval society. In this narrative, it is 1976, but the course of history has been altered since Martin Luther was promoted to pope in the sixteenth century. The story follows ten-year-old Hubert Anvil, an ordinary boy with an extraordinary voice, as he navigates the complexities of a society that values art above all else, leading to a pivotal decision regarding his future.
Readers will find themselves immersed in a richly constructed world filled with themes of piety, menace, and the sacrifices made for artistic preservation. As Hubert grapples with the implications of an operation that could change his life forever, the narrative unfolds against the backdrop of a society frozen in time. This edition spans 204 pages and is presented in English, offering a thought-provoking look at the intersections of art and personal agency within a counterfactual framework.
Official synopsis Publisher
In Kingsley Amis’s virtuoso foray into virtual history it is 1976 but the modern world is a medieval relic, frozen in intellectual and spiritual time ever since Martin Luther was promoted to pope back in the sixteenth century. Stephen the Third, the king of England, has just died, and Mass (Mozart’s second requiem) is about to be sung to lay him to rest. In the choir is our hero, Hubert Anvil, an extremely ordinary ten-year-old boy with a faultless voice. In the audience is a select group of experts whose job is to determine whether that faultless voice should be preserved by performing a certain operation. Art, after all, is worth any sacrifice.
How Hubert realizes what lies in store for him and how he deals with the whirlpool of piety, menace, terror, and passion that he soon finds himself in are the subject of a classic piece of counterfactual fiction equal to Philip K. Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle.”
“The Alteration” won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science-fiction novel in 1976.
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