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Seeing Double
Seeing Double
Nov 11, 2025 6:06 AM

Author:Patrick Wilmot

Seeing Double

All is not well in the state of Niagra, the America of the African continent. The General - the Unique Miracle of the Century - has banned all but country and western music; a giant statue of Elvis desecrates the sacred Amuz Rock, street children are terrorised by the General's Disposal Units and someone is conducting experiments on unwitting Evangelical Christians. In Xanadu, Bob Marley, the sign painter, draws portraits that are more real than the real, more human than human and longs for the mother stolen from him by Idi Amin Ogwu. And in the oil-rich province of Lidiziam, villagers who refuse the attentions of the Burton Holly corporation, and its promises of US dollars in exchange for their oil, are massacred. The nation rejoices when idealistic young army officers stage a bloodless coup, but the revolution and dreams of utopian democracy are short-lived. A US-led 'coalition of the willing' sponsors a counter-coup and reinstates the General. The young idealists are rounded up, tortured and murdered. Forced to flee to the secret caves of Lidiziam, the girlfriends, wives and sisters of the revolutionaries gather together a guerrilla army of women and children and prepare to wage a very unorthodox war against the General and his powerful allies. Seeing Double is a provocative contemporary tale of dictatorship, kleptocracy, globalization and greed. It is a story of idealism, love, ganja, Sade, country & western music, Elvis, the art of sign painting, the war against terror and the politics of haute couture. With caustic humour and keen observation, Patrick Wilmot has written a satire that is as unforgiving in its analysis of world events as it is entertaining.

Reviews

The candour and extremity and intelligence of My First Wife are profoundly affecting ... This is a literary masterwork of a vanished kind, but through the remarkable Hofmann it is born again as a story for our age. Hogmann has the rare ability to refresh the very heart of a text in translating it, to increase its connections to life

—— Rachel Cusk , Guardian

The opening pages of this novel are ike something out of Chekhov - it's all there, the ennui, the preening etiquette, the intellectual posturing ... painfully heartfelt ... My First Wife is a devastating indictment of the choices we make out of convenience against our hearts and instincts, and the tragedies that ensue

—— Independent

You won't find a more agonising, fascinating literary account of a marriage hitting the rocks

—— Mail Online

[Wassermann's] most elegant and focused work

—— London Review of Books

Gloriously vivacious and nuanced

—— Guardian

Funny, poignant and original, this country-house whodunit made me laugh out loud, and nod in recognition at its acerbic observations

—— Country Life
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