The novel opens with a journalistic account of a crime. One evening at a countryside farmhouse in the lockdown of 2020, a young man, Jake, bludgeoned another, Pegasus, with a bar of solid gold until he lost consciousness. The farmhouse was the scene of an illegal party, where Pegasus and his cohort of “Universalist” anti-capitalist activists were squatting. The property had been recently renovated to a luxurious standard by a London banker, Richard Spencer, as a country home. Jake was a member of the group, but had that day been evicted in a unanimous decision from the Universalists, despite being the one to have sourced the property in the first place. After the incident, Jake disappears, taking the gold bar with him.
Richard Spencer is the owner of the property (and the gold bar). A stockbroker at a major investment bank, he owns multiple properties and has substantial wealth. He had given Jake access to the farm as a favour to Lenny, a neighbour in his Kensington mansion block with whom he has been having an affair. Lenny turns out to be Miriam Leonard, journalist and bestselling author of NO MO’ WOKE, an anthology of her articles on “the imminent threat of ‘woke culture and anti-white sentiment’”.
In researching the story, the author seems to work out that Lenny is Jake’s mother, and eventually tracks him down to his hiding place – his mother’s flat in the building she shares with Richard Spencer. Jake turns himself in to the police. Pegasus recovers and doesn’t hold a grudge. As the article closes, Spencer laments that the police have not yet returned his gold bar. In the account of the characters and actions, he comes off poorly. The article ends: “In the cold light of 2021, Richard Spencer’s conduct begs the question: Why does our society tolerate these greedy, pitiful men?”
Continue Reading for Free
Register with your email address. We will send you a verification code before unlocking the article.
