When the English Fall
David Williams, 2017
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781616205225
Summary
A riveting and unexpected novel that questions whether a peaceful and nonviolent community can survive when civilization falls apart.
When a catastrophic solar storm brings about the collapse of modern civilization, an Amish community in Pennsylvania is caught up in the devastating aftermath.
Once-bright skies are now dark. Planes have plummeted to the ground. The systems of modern life have crumbled.
With their stocked larders and stores of supplies, the Amish are unaffected at first. But as the English (the Amish name for all non-Amish people) become more and more desperate, they begin to invade Amish farms, taking whatever they want and unleashing unthinkable violence on the peaceable community.
Seen through the diary of an Amish farmer named Jacob as he tries to protect his family and his way of life, When the English Fall examines the idea of peace in the face of deadly chaos: Should members of a nonviolent society defy their beliefs and take up arms to defend themselves? And if they don’t, can they survive?
David Williams’s debut novel is a thoroughly engrossing look into the closed world of the Amish, as well as a thought-provoking examination of “civilization” and what remains if the center cannot hold. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1969-70
• Raised—Falls Church, Virginia, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Virginia; M.Div., D.Min., Wesley Theological Seminary
• Currently—lives in Annandale, Virginia
David Williams is an American Presbyterian minister and author. His debut novel, When the English Fall, an apocolyptic story told from the perspective of an Amish farmer, was published in 2017.
Willams graduated from Falls Church High School, in Virginia, and received his B.A. from the University of Virginia. He went on to earn both a Master's and Doctoral degree (2003 and 2015 respectively) from Wesley Theological Seminary and is currently pastor of a small church in Poolesville, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C.
When not speaking from the pulpit, Williams likes to drive things: motocycles, forklifts, vans filled with Salvation Army bell-ringers, and cars with his two sons shuttling back and forth between school and activities. He and his family live in Annandale, Virginia.
For 10 years, from 1992-2002, he served as Grant Manager at the Aspen Institute, where he oversaw a peer-reviewed grant writing process to support social science research into nonprofits, nongovermental organizations, philanthropy, and voluntarism. He has also published articles in OMNI, The Christian Century, and Wired. He blogs at belovedspear.com. (Adapted from the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Apocalyptic stories are popping up everywhere these days, but David Williams’s beautiful, contemplative novel takes an unusual approach. He follows the only survivors who are immune to the devastation — the Amish — and they’re getting along just fine.… Moral people placed in impossible situations forms the crux of most good fiction, and When the English Fall is no exception …a stand-out. It is thoughtful and thought-provoking — worthy of fine discussions for any book club. Highly recommended. READ MORE …
P.J. Adler - LitLovers
Entrancing [and] deceptively simple, lulling, holding, at times, the power of prayer.
Boston Globe
An unusually good post-apocalyptic novel.… When the English Fall is thoughtful and the events are believable—even if the members of the Order are a little too saintly to be so. (The hypocritical, unhappy, or judgmental members of the community remain firmly off-screen.) And Williams lets his characters avoid truly wrenching ethical dilemmas, which might have deepened the novel. But Jacob is written as a witness, not a man of action—and he is so likable Williams just about gets away with it.
Christian Science Monitor
I never realized I wanted a postapocalyptic Amish novel, but the premise is so perfect I can’t believe that it’s never been done before—or that someone did it so well on the first try.
Adam Morgan - Minneapolis Star-Tribune
[S]atisfying.The diary format means the scientific details of the storm’s effects are vague and the most horrifying events are only rumored; this increases tension and keeps the narrative from becoming as dehumanizing or shockingly violent as other tales of the end of the world.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) [The diary] perspective provides more introspective focus.… [A] quiet, ideas-focused dystopian novel that will stay with readers long after they have turned the final page. —Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Williams' novel is the lyrical and weirdly believable diary of an Amish farmer…[after] some sort of atmospheric event knocks out the power grid everywhere.… A standout among post-apocalyptic novels, as simply and perfectly crafted as an Amish quilt.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion … then take off on your own:
1. Talk about the catastrophe: the solar storm itself and the disaster it causes in the post-industrialized "English" world. What do you see as the worst, or perhaps most horrific, part of the fallout?
2. How far fetched is such a catastrophe? David Williams based his novel on a massive solar storm that took place in 1859, which came to be known as the Carrington Event. See his essay in the Algonquin Reader. If such a disaster were actually to occur in our lives, how do you think we would all fare as a civilization?
3. How are the Amish portrayed in The Fall of the English—do they come across as saintly … naive … pragmatic? In what ways do they remain both untouched yet also affected by the calamity?
4. What role does 14-year-old Sadie play? How are her visions put to use? Does the use of magical realism (the visions) feel out of place to you in this work? Or do you think it enriches the story?
5. Jacob writes, "For us, life is much the same. But we are not the only people." How do the Amish respond to the suffering in nearby Lancaster? How do you see their responsibility, religiously and morally, to their English neighbors? How do the Amish themselves see their responsibility?
6. Follow-up to Question 5: Jacob writes: "Jesus taught that we should never allow the world's hate to move our hands against others among God's children." Yet as lawlessness moves closer to the their farms, what options are open to the Amish?
7. What is Jacob's relationship with Mike, and why does the bishop disapprove? Mike, for instance, listens to radio talk shows, warning about the global warming "hoax." Jacob wonders "why Mike bothers to listen …if all he receives is anger." In what way is Mike emblematic of the differences between the Amish and English cultures? Finally, how did you feel about Bishop Schrock's decision regarding Michael on October 20?
8. Follow-up to Question 7: Jacob writes of Mike's problems: "The sorrows are planted, and they grow strong in the earth of his life, and they rise up, and there is harvest." What does Jacob mean, and in what way is the comment prophetic?
9. In his Algonquin Reader essay, Williams says he hopes When the English Fall sheds light upon how connected we humans are despite our different beliefs. Does he succeed in his goal? How so?
10. Much of the horror takes place "off stage," out of sight of the reader. In what way does this distancing technique, heighten the novel's overall tension?
11. Jacob rides with a National Guard into Lancaster to see for himself the conditions of the English. Talk about what he observes there (Oct. 6: p. 133). He writes that he would not want to "choose their life":
[S]o much of my growing up was in a place where [the English] were not viewed as neighbors, but as dark and terrible and spiritually dangerous. In my heart and through my faith, I do not feel this to be true, but it is difficult to entirely lose that fear once it is planted.
What does Jacob's attitude about the outside world reveal, either about him or about the English? Is there any truth to what he fears (though wishes he didn't fear)?
12. Jacob owns a Smith & Wesson revolver. How does he see the differences between the Amish use of guns and the way the English use them?
13. Two competing versions of providence are considered in Jacob's diary. After the hurricane, some houses were unscathed while others were left damaged. Jacob's view holds that "It is just the way of creation." He believes that a damaged house is not God's punishment for its owner's sin. "It is just that we are humble, small creatures, and that the vastness of God's creation can break us so easily" (Oct. 15, p.139).
A different view was held by Jacob's uncle who blamed Jacob and Hannah for their inability to have more children. Jacob writes of his uncle:
He said I needed to examine my heart for sin. I needed to consider why God had inflicted this punishment on my family, and to repent of it (Oct. 17, p.154.).
Those divergent views exist today among a variety of denominations. 1) Bad things happen as a form of punishment for our sins. 2) Or bad things happen as part of the "vastness of God's creation." And if the latter is true, does that mean that we are not under God's protection? How do you conceive of providence?
14. What are your feelings about the book's ending?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)