Along with the strange flotsam of the sea, the aptly named John Love drifts in on the grey tide to grace a remote island off the English coast. The stranger, both bedazzling and unnerving, effects an immediate messianic glow upon the bladder-wracked community of odds and sods, making disciples of the most unlikely characters. Chris Hill's visionary and delightfully bizarre novel reads like the gospel for a neophyte religion spawning in the sea foam among strange goings-on. It examines how destiny is the result of the collective will, especially among tribal folk who forever yearn to conform to ancient cants and creeds. Song of the Sea God comes from both the ancient incantations of history and mythology and the awkward cadences of the modern age. The plot is riddled with humour and pathos, which will delight fans of the contemporary British literary novel. With rich symbolism and delicious twists of irony, Hill takes the reader on a microcosmic wild ride in a story told by a mute that starts in a pub called The Vengeance. Along the way the reader is treated to a feast of psychotic musings that somehow manages to include miracles, Tip Rats, plastic ducks, the life of pebbles, and a Diary of Stools.

With the media concentrating on the occasional violent clashes between demonstrators and the massive police mobilisations in Genoa at the G8 demonstrations the significance of the anti-capitalist protests is often missed. For the first time, arguably for a generation, young people can see an attractive entry point in to general politics, rather than limiting themselves to single-issue campaigns. One of their slogans, 'Overthrow capitalism. Replace it with something nicer', highlights a central dilemma; if the system is to be overthrown, what is to be put in its place? That is what this book is about - the need to replace the capitalist economy with a social economy and just what is meant by that. Anti-Capitalism has an immodest aim. It starts by defining what the problems of the free market political economy are, goes on to discuss the solution and ends with how we politically implement that solution. This is not an angry book, though there is much to be angry about. Hill recognises the human values that lie underneath economics, but his main task is to lay out the argument for an alternative economic system that is successful even on the terms of a Financial Times writer. It is impossible to tell when economic earthquakes might occur, but this book seeks to map out the fault lines. A new generation of radical activists is being formed who do not cleave to socialism as their natural inheritance. Anti-Capitalism argues that the call for the socialisation of major companies should be a cornerstone of any new political movement.