Paul Kingsnorth reflects on enduring questions of community, fear and human nature through a fictional group of survivors of an ecological apocalypse.

A thousand years in the future, a small religious community is living in what were once the fens of eastern England. They are perhaps the world's last human survivors. Now, they find themselves stalked by a force that draws ever closer, a force intent on destroying everything they stand for.

Set on the far side of the ecological apocalypse, Kingsnorth's new novel is a mythical, polyphonic drama driven by elemental themes: of community versus the self, the mind versus the body, machine versus human – of whether to put your faith in the present or the future.

Alexandria completes the Buckmaster Trilogy, which began with Kingsnorth's prize-winning The Wake. We’ll be talking about these novels; Kingsnorth’s recent conversion to Orthodox Christianity; why he left the environmental movement; and capitalism.

In conversation with Bristol Ideas director Andrew Kelly.

Paul Kingsnorth’s Alexandria is published by Faber & Faber. Buy a copy from Waterstones, our bookselling partners.

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Festival of Ideas: Paul Kingsnorth, How Might Fiction Prepare Us For Ecological Apocalypse?