The Westward Hours
Dennison Smith
7 May 2026
9781917569231
Demy Hardback, 272pp
Price: £16.99
A visionary dystopian epic of survival and memory in a climate-ravaged America.
Across the fractured end of the twenty-first century, multiple generations endure the upheavals of climate collapse and the violent remaking of what was once the United States.
At the heart of the cruel, chaotic wastelands of the Southwest are the brother and sister known in whispers as ‘the Twins’: Tom and Tam MacAllister.
Their brief insurrection against the oligarchic powers of a broken nation blazes with elemental force, echoing long after their fall. Half-history, half-legend, their legacy lingers in surpising ways as a bleaker order re-forms.
Dennison Smith’s taut, luminous prose carries this mythic novel of violence and renewal, confronting what is lost – and what may yet be born.
Author
Dennison Smith is an award-winning author whose previous novels include The Eye of the Day and Scavenger. She founded The Baldwin Gallery in London, representing contemporary fine art by indigenous North American artists. She has collaborated with institutions such as The National Maritime Museum, Canada House and The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. She holds degrees from Northwestern University and the University of East Anglia, where she completed a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing. Faced with the recent sea change in US politics, she now makes her home in Évora, Portugal.