The idea behind this book is startling: the world is having another ordinary day when suddenly there is a crackle of static. A voice breaks through the hiss, telling everyone not to be afraid. </p>
The world is stricken. Whose voice was that? Some are ecstatic, convinced they are hearing God. Some suspect a terrorist plot, others fear an alien attack. Some say it’s a prank. A small number don’t hear it at all, and are fearful. Why have they been singled out? </p>
The book is narrated by a range of different characters - I’d say there are about 25 different voices – and they are scattered across the globe. We have a White House adviser, a Johannesburg drug dealer, a Barcelona housewife, a Florida teenager, a Vatican nun, and the list goes on. Each gives their own experience of hearing this voice, and what they think it is. </p>
So the novel is composed of tiny chapters, each from the point of view of the many narrators, and it skips between them all, often at a break-neck pace.</p>
Although we have a unique approach, and a bold and unsettling scenario, the multiple narrators weaken the novel.  There is huge inconsistency amongst them. For example, the White House insider has, obviously, much to say about ‘The Broadcast’, as it comes to be known. He is at the frenzied heart of The White House, advising the President on how to keep the population calm, and urging their finest scientists to track where the voice is coming from. Then he must deal with terrorist attacks, as a jihadist group thinks ‘The Broadcast’ is The West trying to impose its God on the world. Naturally, then, his chapters are developed, detailed and lengthy. However, we then skip to the blander, shorter or meaningless chapters as we hear from characters who have little to say. It was irritating to be caught up in the White House terrorist drama only to leap to a computer nerd in Shanghai who grumbles that no-one is logging on to play games any more.</p> 
I feel the book would have been stronger if the author had focused on fewer narrators. He’d then have had the time and space to beef them up, whilst trimming the fat elsewhere. If there was a narrative need to gather in worldwide stories and experiences, then there could have been a section devoted to ‘vox pops’ from the frightened populace, or we could have been given newspaper reportage. There are many alternatives besides devoting space to these non-contributors. </p>
Finally, although I favour character over plot, a novel like this is clearly driven by events. So, we wait to find out whose voice it was. God? Aliens? Terrorists? Garbled radiation from the big bang? A prank? I won’t give away the ending, obviously, but it was rather a damp squib. If we aren’t to be blown away by the plot, then we need strong characterisation instead to prop up the story, but we don’t get that as the narrative is fractured into a thousand different voices. </p>
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<i>The Testimony</i> is published by Blue Door</p>
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