The Wake (novel)

The Wake is a 2014 novel by British author Paul Kingsnorth. Written in an "imaginary language", a kind of hybrid between Old English and Modern English, it tells of "buccmaster of holland", an Anglo-Saxon freeman forced to come to terms with the effects of the Norman Invasion of 1066, during which his wife and sons were killed. He begins a guerrilla war against the Norman invaders in the Lincolnshire Fens.

The book, whose publication was financed through crowdsourcing, was longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and won the 2014 Gordon Burn Prize. The film rights were acquired by actor and director Mark Rylance.