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A beautifully intricate story encompassing philosophical yearnings (fiercely compelling in their insight) for a pre-technological planet, and a multi-layered political agenda — all peppered with characters teeming with self-interest and corruption.

Sadie Smith is an enigma. A seemingly heartless, perhaps even psychopathic, shadowy figure, “Sadie”, our first person POV narrator, is an undercover agent working for secret government forces intent on disempowering subversive ecological warriors, with evidence be it legitimate, or largely manufactured.

Sadie is also dryly hilarious, keenly observant and highly intelligent, with a win-at-any cost mindset based on what initially feels like stoicism, but is perhaps, instead, a foundation of suppressed emotions and longings so tightly coiled one can only wonder when she will finally snap.

As “Sadie”, in her current undercover role as the girlfriend/wife of an unsuspecting and connected Frenchman, uncovers the world of Bruno Lacombe, an academic who founded a subversive group intent on loosening the governmental grip on rural French farmland and its infrastructure, she becomes embroiled in the combustible causes themselves — digging deeper and deeper, with what comes to feel to the reader like fervant obsession — lost in the internal bickering, political maneuverings, and hidden agendas that have grown to all but obfuscate Bruno’s original enlightened ideas.

What follows is a fascinating exploration of ancient prehistoric man, our essential relationship with the natural world, philosophy, politics, and the general messiness (read, unpredictability) of life, as it exists, on this planet, and certainly in Sadie’s direct experience.

An unputdownable story, captured with great skill, in this unique book, which succeeds to be, in the opinion of this reader, a phenomenal and inspiring read.

Note: I listened to the audio book recording read by the author. Fantastic production, which I thoroughly enjoyed.