I really liked Francis Spufford’s last book, Cahokia Jazz, as stated in my 2024 review, so I was very happy when my library app acquired his latest novel, Nonesuch. The protagonist, Iris, is fascinating, and it’s great fun to watch her machinations and verbal fencing; the setting, London during the so-called “Phoney War” and initial stages of World War II, has long held great interest for me; the book is full of lovely, lyrical descriptions, along with dread and occasional action scenes; and not only are there magic and time travel, but also, fights against fascists, and arguments that are sadly more relevant now than I would have believed possible 10 years ago.
However, there’s a giant caveat: The comp that instantly leaps into my head after finishing it is Blackout, by Connie Willis. Not just because it’s set in World War II and there’s time travel involved; oh no: Nonesuch ends with the dreaded words, To be continued. If you hated the way that Blackout concluded with a cliffhanger, I need to warn you about this. Nobody warned me that this book was the first part of a duology — or maybe a series, but I really hope not, since the second book needs to go ahead and fix what went wrong at the end of Nonesuch, if that’s even possible. Please!
Protagonist Iris is not a “good girl” as most people in her time would judge her. She’s estranged from her parents, for reasons that remain unclear through most of the book. She sleeps with a lot of men because she enjoys sex, she seeks to rise above her given station in life, she considers theft and only rejects it because she’s pretty sure she’d get caught, and sometimes it’s a real effort for her to be kind to other people. But the thing is, she does make that effort pretty often, although self-preservation is her first instinct. She’s clever, she learns things to better herself and strives for roles that are usually reserved for men because she’ll make more money that way and also matter more in the world, but winning that respect would also help pave the way for other women. And as far as she’s concerned, sexual repression does a lot more harm in the world than people enjoying each other’s company.
Iris doesn’t set out to be a freedom fighter, just gets drawn into it almost by accident, following a quarrel in a club, when she called out a pretty girl for her fascist leanings and poached her date. But she understands how bad Great Britain making peace with the Nazis would be for the underprivileged and most people, and when called upon to fight fascists, she does so, in various ways. When she finds out that magic is real, she accepts its results and finds allies to help her with research, but she also uses her mundane connections.
I also like that although Iris is definitely the protagonist, other characters are also interesting, including said poached date, who has a sharp mind despite his social ineptitude, plus his sweet but also socially inept scholar-father; a socially conscious sculptor and her financier boyfriend; and a boss who’s conformist but also has a little depth. Even the fascist girl turns out to be more than just cardboard, although still mean and completely wrong-headed.
MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE PLOT OF NONESUCH:
Nonesuch‘s premise is that angels are real, but there are rules that they have to follow. A group of magical enthusiasts found out long ago how to bind some lesser angels to certain purposes, and fascists eventually took over that group. Now they want to use this stolen power to change a turning point in the past, when England (Great Britain, but basically the English political leadership) was deciding whether to fight Germany or accept what seemed to be almost a fait accompli already of Hitler’s continental ambitions. Iris eventually finds out about this, and although she tries to argue that it’s not her job to do anything about it, she eventually accepts that there’s nobody else who fits.
Iris also eventually falls in love. I enjoyed following her romantic journey, in which she’s determined to retain her independence. I was intrigued by her maneuverings for promotion and power within her stockbroker’s office, and I really enjoyed how she and her allies thought about the magical happenings and how to combat the fascistic efforts to undermine the English side of the war. I thought this book was really great, in multiple ways, until the last few pages.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE PLOT OF NONESUCH:
Iris and her lover eventually foil the magical fascist plot! But then, at the very last moment, Iris realizes that she can force a miracle to change the past otherwise in a way that will take away her childhood trauma. She seizes this opportunity — and that change to her childhood itself changes her driving motivations throughout life, and the kind of person she became, and the decisions she made, and the actions she took. She feels herself changing, and then she comes to, at the scene of her last battle, with no idea how she got there or what she was doing. What kind of person is she now? Does she still even have a job as a clerk for a stockbroker? Her lover isn’t there anymore — did they ever even meet? — and I can only assume that the English fascists have NOT been wiped off the gameboard after all.
END SPOILERS.
My minor irritation with the book having started in medias res, as is so fashionable these days, pales in comparison to getting to the end of this book only to find that it’s a two-parter, at least. Maybe finishing the story would have made the book twice as long, and Spufford’s publisher forbade that? Maybe, since fascism under other names is so prevalent in the U.K. and the U.S.A. these days, Spufford wanted to go ahead and publish this Nazi-fighting book now instead of waiting another year or so for the story to be completed as one long book?
I don’t know why it was done this way. I still adore Iris, despite her self-centered decision at the end (with very little time to think through the consequences). Most of Nonesuch is great, and well worth reading; I just couldn’t review it without warning other readers about the unresolved ending.
Nonesuch, by Francis Spufford, was published March 10, 2026, and can be ordered here. It’s 496 pages but felt a lot faster than that to me.
Content warnings: War, death, assassination magic, killer angels, sexual discrimination, and classism.
Comps: Blackout, by Connie Willis
Disclaimer: None. I love my library!
