Book: Sufferance by Charles Palliser

Sufferance, by Charles Palliser. Publisher: Guernica Editions

From the author of the best-selling The Quincunx, comes this novel about an unnamed country occupied by an unnamed foreign power. An unnamed middle class family take in a vivacious girl from an opulent background, separated from her parents by the war. The father of the host family is a none-too-bright accountant, and the story is his as he recounts it in retrospect. The rich girl becomes a cuckoo in the nest who never seems to appreciate what they are doing for her. Their own two daughters come to detest their guest as an interloper, always boasting about her previously pampered life. Tension rises. The girl is charming on the surface but underneath is devious and manipulative.

Their new guest comes from a minority who are slowly disappearing from public life under pressure from a government installed by the occupying army. Members of this minority have to register, must wear a badge and are given special identity cards. Eventually they are isolated in a ghetto before 'relocation'. The parallel with the Jews under Nazi rule is clear but not stated. In fact the anonymity of this setting suggests that these events could occur anywhere.

Gradually a thicket of laws is imposed on the despised minority. The family hosting the girls realise they could be severely punished for protecting her. Eventually she cannot go out because of the risk of being caught. She has to stay in the tiny flat where her erratic behaviour and fantasies alienate her increasingly worried hosts, who are trapped in a web of lies and deceit that could bring down the whole family. The resulting sense of fear and paranoia is well rendered and draws in the reader who senses that tragedy awaits.

Meanwhile the accountant father finds himself assigned to a team confiscating the wealth of those who belong of the minority. He has to use threats and bluster to force his victims to reveal where their wealth is kept. It is distasteful to him, but he complies. It reminds us of Hannah Arendt's famous phrase, 'The banality of evil'. He is a minor functionary haplessly drawn into collusion with a great evil that he can only partly discern. There are parallels with the recent Booker Prize Winner Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, where collusion with authoritarianism spreads like a stain through an increasingly oppressive Ireland.

Part of the cleverness of this novel is its unsympathetic portrayal of the hidden girl. This is no Anne Frank. Would you be willing to help someone at grave risk who is unappreciative? The accountant who takes her in initially hoped that her wealthy family would repay him handsomely. Too late he realises this is a forlorn hope. He has trapped the whole family in a situation that could have devastating consequences for them all.

The moral issues are real and pressing, but without the 'feel-good' factor that attends stories like those of Anne Frank. We are confronted with the question: What would you do? Choices are not clear-cut, motivations are not always pure. We like to imagine we would heroically protect the persecuted if we ever witnessed genocide. This haunting novel challenges us to think again.

Sufferance is published by Guernica Editions,Canada
ISBN: 9781771838856

Available from all good bookshops, including:

Guernica Editions: https://guernicaeditions.com/products/sufferance
Waterstones: www.waterstones.com/book/sufferance/charles-palliser/9781771838856