The Anarchist, a historical novel, dramatizes the interplay of forces leading to the assassination of an American president at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Through linking first-person narratives, the novel explores the interrelated lives of fictional as well as historical figures, mainly Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, William McKinley and McKinley's assassin Leon Czolgosz, at a turbulent time in American history, a time of protests, hangings, hunger riots, strikes, bombings and massacres.
Although a tragedy in part, The Anarchist also depicts the permutations of love, idealism and coming of age in the time of anarchism in the United States, while evoking parallels to contemporary economic and social issues.
Editorial Reviews
"Higgins turns in another memorable performance with this historical novel that looks at the years leading up to the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. The author focuses on some of the key players in that story: Emma Goldman, the anarchist and writer who would inspire assassin Leon Czolgosz; Alexander Berkman, Goldman’s lover (and a would-be assassin); and McKinley himself. Using shifting points of view, the author carefully traces his characters’ trajectories from the 1880s to the president’s assassination, showing how ideology—anarchism is a political philosophy; it’s not synonymous with terrorism—can be interpreted, some might say twisted, by a man whose intentions may be honorable, even if his actions are indefensible. A highly intelligent novel, one that demands readers pay close attention to the various threads of the story as the author weaves them together." --David Pitt, Booklist
"When is violence a justifiable response to political or economic oppression? In her second historical novel (after A Soldier's Book) Higgins paints a vivid picture of the tumultuous times surrounding the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. Higgins employs short chapters and switched frequently among the book s many perspectives, successfully giving the reader a balanced view not only of an exciting and often overlooked period in American history but also of the controversial characters at the heart of her story. Highly recommended for historical fiction fans." --Library Journal
"A rich and wonderful novel, filled with what at first seem the quaint and sometimes precious voices of a long-gone time in the nineteenth century that slowly and inexorably become, in Joanna Higgins masterful technique of shifting viewpoints, the voices of all us, especially those of us trying to make our way through an economic system that would just as soon kill us with wars and chemicals and brutal jobs as let us be free. Centered on the life of Emma Goldman, The Anarchist details both the joys and terrible costs of trying to live freed from the shackles imposed by a powerful corporate government syndicate that is just as powerful today as it was in Goldman's time." --R. M. Ryan, author of Vaudeville in the Dark
"Each chapter of the novel stands as a convincing personal essay, retold in the first person voice of its protagonist. Together the chapters tell a deeply involving story, bigger than its separate parts, well-researched, historical, and hauntingly real. Love, politics and power are a heady mix which proves, in the end, as timeless as the human heart." --Sheila's Reviews
About the Author
Joanna Higgins has taught at colleges in the United States and in Englad and is the author of the novels Dead Center (2010), and A Soldier's Book (1998), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and was also a finalist in the Michael Shaara Award, 2007, for Civil War fiction. She received a National Endowment for the Arts Award for fiction, and her short stories appear in several anthologies, including the Best American Short Stories series. She lives in upstate New York and northern Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.
