#BlogTour The Margins by John Wigglesworth

 It's my turn on the BlogTour The Margins by John Wigglesworth.

About the Author

John Wigglesworth is a British national who has been based in Asia for the last ten years. The Margins is his fiction debut. In his spare time—when he’s not writing—John runs his own company in Bangkok. A former backpacking junkie, John travelled extensively across India and South East Asia before realising that his wanderlust was incompatible with the parenting demands of his Westie. He is now settled in Thailand. Follow @JohnWiggleswor8 on Twitter, Visit johnwigglesworth.com

About the book

It’s a tragedy that will make headline news across the globe—the bodies of scores of Westerners discovered at a remote commune high in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh. Amidst a growing media frenzy, the Indian authorities are desperate for answers, and only Ethan Hicks can provide them—for no one else made it out alive. Yet as Ethan begins to recount what took place up on the mountain, it soon becomes apparent that his story will prove just as shocking as the injuries he survived . . .

Moving between the bustling streets of 1980s Delhi and the forested slopes of the Kullu Valley, The Margins is a dark and unsettling exploration of the human condition—a tale of greed and obsession, but also of love.

Review

Ethan is a survivor of a tragedy, unfortunately it looks like the sole survivor, which means the police have questions. The reader gets a glimpse of the man who started looking for purpose, whilst dawdling his life away in India. He meets like minded people with a penchant for mind-numbing substances - together they decide to create their own solution to their lack of purpose. Now, everyone is dead - except for Ethan of course.

In a way Margins holds the concept of why theoretical ideology of societal structures is often only a good idea in theory. Take communes as your attempt at Marxist Communism for example. Communism only ever works well in theory, because ultimately capitalism and greed supersedes the ideology, and of course someone has to or wants to be in charge. There will always be a hierarchy no matter how equal society is structured. 

Also, just to note, that statistically the majority of communes, cults are brought to life by privileged white men. In this case the irony of the privileged wanting to escape the chains and societal burdens laden upon them by capitalism by escaping into a self-made utopia of equality with no rules, which then turns into an excellent example of how capitalism works and of course the exploitation of workers.  

Although this is a premise that is deeply ingrained with a message about societal structures and the fallacy of the practical usage of theoretical ideologies, Wigglesworth has written it as very cleverly constructed suspect and crime scenario. I loved it, it's definitely one of my best reads of the year.

Buy The Margins at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Penguin Random House SEA; pub date 15th Jan 2021. Buy at Amazon com.