A Sprawling, Raucous,
Immensely Entertaining Yarn
A Feature Review of
Nonesuch: A Novel
Francis Spufford
Hardback: Simon and Schuster, 2026
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Reviewed by Elliott May
One of my favorite scenes in Francis Spufford’s latest novel, Nonesuch, comes near its end. It’s Christmas Eve in 1940, and the story’s two protagonists, Iris and Geoff, are attending midnight Mass. For months, London has been under the nightly bombing campaign by the Nazis now referred to as The Blitz. In an attempt to deter the Nazi planes haunting London each night, the city is under a blackout order. Despite the knowledge that death could fall from the sky at any time, Iris and Geoff, though not usually churchgoers, decide to pick their way through the rubble-strewn streets to attend a Christmas Eve service in a spontaneous attempt to recreate some semblance of holiday-time tradition. As the service unfolds and familiar Christmas hymns rise through the candlelight, Iris reflects,
“Peace on earth, goodwill towards men,” said the vicar. They were putting their faith, Iris and Geoff and everyone else there, in promises they didn’t know could be kept. Promises with no guarantee of safety, or of happy endings, any more than there was a happy ending for the baby in the manger. And yet they were trying to trust them anyway. Anything might happen. Anything at all, moment to moment. But by now, she thought, glancing at the faces, everyone here knew that. This was hope, not delusion.
It would spoil too much of the novel’s plot to say more about the circumstances surrounding the epiphany which Iris experiences in the church. But it touches on one of the most fundamental elements of this winsome, genre-bending novel. Throughout these pages, as the characters debate political ideology, square off with supernatural forces, and consider questions of love and loss, there is a consistent thread: at its heart, Nonesuch is a meditation on what happens when people must confront forces greater than the self.
The story opens in the summer of 1939, with Europe on the brink of war. Iris Hawkins, an intelligent, adventurous, highly ambitious clerk in a downtown financial firm meets Geoffrey Hale while out dancing at a nightclub. Geoff, a television engineer for the BBC, is her opposite. He is shy, inexperienced, and quietly infatuated with Lall, otherwise known as Lady Lalage Cunningham, an aristocratic socialite with fascist sympathies. After she and Iris have an unpleasant exchange, Iris invites Geoff to dance, mostly to annoy Lall. The evening ends with an awkward one-night stand in Geoff’s family home. Iris slips out the next morning, sure that she will never see Geoff again. But as readers are soon to discover, the encounter with Geoff has set off a series of events which will change the course of both of their lives and, perhaps, of European history.
Thus begins Francis Spufford’s latest fictional offering, a sprawling, raucous, immensely entertaining yarn of historical fiction. Readers who have previously encountered Spufford’s fiction can expect similar stylistic skills here: immersive world-building, lively prose, and a leisurely narrative pace. Part of its charm stems from its refusal to settle firmly into the grooves of any one particular genre; Nonesuch is at once a fantasy, time-travel epic, and a wartime coming-of-age tale. There are angels, magical fascists, and invisible bridges to unknown realms present in these pages. Simply put, this enigmatic, whimsical novel is a lot of fun.
But the achievement of this text is that it situates these fantastical elements alongside the real historical events of the Blitz. Spufford especially succeeds at showing the dreadful absurdity of normal life in a London under siege. Despite the bombs which fall each night, Iris and her office-mates trudge through the daily rhythms of work and domestic life, wondering each day if it will be their last. “Is magic really any harder to believe than the rest of this?” Iris muses at one point. “Another couple of hours and we’ll all be hiding in holes. And then boys from Hamburg and Munich- nice boys, probably, on the whole, who love their mothers- will fly overhead trying to kill us. It’s a crazy world.” It is this grotesque, absurdist vision of tedium and threat which grounds the novel and gives it depth.
One aspect of Nonesuch may shape how different readers respond. It is pretty saucy; there is a lot of sex in these pages. It generally serves the character development – one of the characters is wrestling throughout the story with questions of vulnerability, meaning, and commitment with respect to sex and intimacy- but some readers may be put off by that aspect.
Without giving away any plot details, it becomes clear in the climactic final pages that the story will continue via a sequel, in which many of the issues and choices which have formed the narrative will come into question again. That sequel is apparently due out next year. In the meantime, I am thinking about the questions raised by Nonesuch: what shape does hope take when there is no guarantee that things will turn out well? And how should humans think about agency and action, especially when faced with concrete choices that can change the course of many lives? What sacrifices are owed to our loved ones? These are some of the questions which remain unanswered at the end of this luminous novel. We can’t say yet where Spufford might come down on these questions, but this reader is eagerly awaiting his response.
Elliott May
Elliott May is the Children, Youth, and Young Adult Minister at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brookline, Massachusetts. Elliott is also postulant for priest in the Episcopal Church, and he holds graduate degrees in theology from Princeton Theological Seminary and Boston University. Elliott lives near Boston with his wife and their two young children.
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