Review: The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch

Earth is not what it once was. After a catastrophic series of disasters instigated during the war, all that remains of the planet is a burnt-out husk. Those who could afford it have taken to an artificial home in space, where their bodies are slowly acclimatizing and devolving – without sunlight, gravity or the ability to reproduce, people are shadows of their former selves, and the vast openness of space is just another prison. In the confines of this new world, human skin is the last home of the story, and skin grafts and scarification tell the tales that the world no longer can.

Joan of Dirt, the woman who triggered the Earth’s downfall during the war, remains alive. Despite the government’s claims to the contrary, she was not successfully executed, and her unnatural power to fight for the earth and unite people is every bit as potent as it was when the planet was flourishing. To keep the status quo, the government seeks her blood, but a group of grafted rebels seek to protect Joan and spread her story.

The Book of Joan is a piece of writing to which words can do no justice. This book is literally mesmerizing; magical and surreal, with a carefully crafted message delivered through poetry and wonder. The Book of Joan is beyond a narrative; it is a dystopia of the soul, it tears your heart apart and stiches it back together through a thoughtful retelling of a story as old as feminism itself, with an added allure of post-apocalyptic chaos and upheaval. 

In addition, there is a delicious duality in the imagery. We are presented with a mirage of eroticism hidden among the true beauty in others – their minds. Yuknavitch cleverly demonstrates the power of words and charm. In her world, stories become a visible armor. Through this emphasis, the reader is left to consider what is left of humanity when our bodies are taken away – when are we more than our appearances?

This book is a superb and original time travel adventure carefully treading the line between the mythology of worlds past, and the technology of the future, in a present of destruction and rebirths. Read this and change your life.

The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch is published by Penguin Random House.