The Years of Waiting Patiently

Most bookworms have to resign themselves at some stage to the excruciating anticipation that comes with awaiting a new book from a favourite author or series. If you're reading a  fairly prolific author you might be lucky and only have to wait a year before you'll get your next fix, regardless the wait often seems never-ending, but fortunately that's usually a trick of your over-eager bookish brain. Except of course when it's not (you have my deepest sympathy Game of Thrones fans). In recent years my own wait has been for The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes.

I received an advanced reading copy of Hayes' debut novel I Am Pilgrim - I'm not sure how far in advance now but I'd hesitate a guess at 6 months and the book was due to be published in July, so let's say in early in 2013. At the time I didn't read much in the way of crime thrillers but I had just finished my current read and I Am Pilgrim was the closest book to hand, so I picked it up with the expectation that I'd read a few pages to pass the time until I could dedicate time to the serious business of considering my TBR pile and picking my next read.

Reader, I loved it.

It completely gripped me. It was topical, terrifying and effortlessly readable. It opened my eyes to a genre I had previously shunned, and I wanted everyone to read it and enjoy it too. It was a personal favourite of 2013. I still regularly recommend it. You can imagine my complete joy when, in 2015, news filtered down that Hayes was writing a second thriller, Year of the Locust, and it would be published in 2017. There was no further details but I didn't need any. That book would be mine.

Alas 2017 came and went and The Year of the Locust did not materialise. I have seen speculative dates for 2018, 2019 and now 2020. I live in a constant state of hope and anticipation. I live in constant fear that it is a beautiful dream that will never be realised. Perhaps the current state of western politics feels too much like a live-action crime-thriller and Hayes has given up on trying to produce novel that can match the reality we currently face. Nevertheless I have marked the new publication date on my calendar, 30th April 2020, and I wait, ever hopeful.

Until then I'll content myself with periodically re-reading I Am Pilgrim. If you haven't already read it I urge you to do so and let me know what you think. Below is my original review from the distant past of 2013. I'll re-review it after a further reading and let you know if time has changed my opinion.

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A breakneck race against time... and an implacable enemy. An anonymous young woman murdered in a run-down hotel, all identifying characteristics dissolved by acid. A father publicly beheaded in the blistering heat of a Saudi Arabian public square. A notorious Syrian biotech expert found eyeless in a Damascus junkyard. Smouldering human remains on a remote mountainside in Afghanistan. A flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity. One path links them all, and only one man can make the journey. Pilgrim.

Readers may be forgiven for thinking on a basis of the first couple of chapters alone that this is a crime novel – and indeed it is categorised as such – but for my part I am inclined to consider it more of an espionage-thriller. Neither genre is what I usually read but I am so glad that I picked I Am Pilgrim up.

At 700 pages it is a debut novel of considerable heft but I would urge you not to be put off by its size. I admit to asking myself on more than one occasion, ‘Is this relevant?’, however I found the tangents to be interesting within themselves and ultimately my patience was rewarded as the strands were drawn together, revealing two distinct, converging plotlines. As such I wouldn’t say it is complex to grasp, more that it is broad in scope.

I was amazed at how emotive some of the plot details were, having been brought to tears on more than one occasion, and yet it is a thriller that has all the necessities of a thoroughly absorbing and enjoyable modern espionage novel, with particular relevance to today’s political climate and the Middle East debate.

I shall certainly be recommending it to others, and look forward to reading more from Terry Hayes.