Jerusalem (Moore novel)
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| Author | Alan Moore |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Set in | Northampton, England |
| Published | September, 2016 |
| Publisher | Knockabout (UK), Liveright (US) |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 1266 |
| ISBN | (UK), (US) |
Jerusalem is a novel by British author Alan Moore, wholly set in and around the author's home town of Northampton, England. Combining elements of historical and supernatural fiction and drawing on a range of writing styles, the author describes it as a work of "genetic mythology". Published in 2016, Jerusalem took a decade to write. At the time of publication it was one of the 10 longest novels written in the English language. The novel is divided into three Books, "The Boroughs", "Mansoul", and "Vernall's Inquest".
The story develops over centuries, set in the Boroughs, the most ancient neighbourhood in Northampton. The colophon states that the book is based on a true story; it concerns a large collection of characters: some mythical, some fictional, and some historical. Along with his family's oral traditions, life experience, and ideas (such as eternalism) that he had explored in other writings, Moore's research sources included a collection of interviews entitled “In Living Memory — Life in ‘The Boroughs,’” published by the Northampton Arts Development in 1987, as well as old Kelly's directories.
A key narrative arc culminates in 2006 with an exhibit of paintings by one of the characters, Alma Warren — indicated by the author portrait and its caption, present on the book's jacket, to be a stand-in for Moore. Several events in the story are retold with different characters as the focaliser, with the writing style adapted to the focal character's inner voice, in a way that unites otherwise disconnected narrative threads. The book includes chapters in the style of Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, as well as a chapter written in verse, while the entire second Book is somewhat in the style of a children's novel (a "savage, hallucinating Enid Blyton," according Moore in a 2008 interview with the BBC).
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