Resistance by Owen Sheers – Book and Movie Review

Resistance, written by Owen Sheers and published in 2007, is a literary alternative history novel set in 1944 in a Wales occupied by Nazi German troops. There was also a 2011 movie based on the novel and starring Andrea Riseborough and Tom Wlaschiha.

Resistance: Title

The title uses a classic title archetype, the conflict, which is on the theme of physical and emotional resistance, and temptations that have to be resisted.

(For more on titles, see How to Choose a Title For Your Novel)

Resistance by Owen Sheers: Logline

After D-Day fails and Germany successfully counter-invades Great Britain, a group of German soldiers arrive in an isolated Welsh valley, searching for a missing art treasure. The women of the valley have to decide how far to go to resist the invaders.

(For more on loglines, see The Killogator Logline Formula)

Resistance by Owen Sheers: Plot Summary

Warning: My plot summaries contain spoilers. Major spoilers are blacked out like this [blackout]secret[/blackout]. To view them, just select/highlight them.

It’s 1944. The Allied invasion of France, D-Day, has failed and Nazi Germany has successfully counter-invaded Great Britain.

With German forces approaching Wales, Sarah Lewis, a farmer’s wife in a remote valley on the Anglo-Welsh border, awakens to discover that her husband has left to join the resistance without telling her. She soon realises all the men in the valley have done the same thing, except for one teenager. In fact, the men have left the teenager behind as a spy, and he remains in contact with them via a dead letter drop.

Shortly afterwards, German troops led by Captain Albrecht Wolfram arrive. Their mission is to find a priceless antique map hidden in the hills by the British. Sarah and the other women tell Albrecht that they are loyal to Britain and won’t cooperate with him or his troops. Albrecht, an educated and humane man, soon discovers the map in a cave, but he doesn’t want the Nazis to have it. He also hopes that he and his men can remain in the valley until spring, by which time the fighting may have ended, enabling his men to survive.

Facing a harsh winter, both the women and soldiers find they must co-operate to survive. The Germans help with farm chores and catching rabbits to eat. In time, the soldiers even cease wearing their uniforms. The soldiers become closer to the women. Captain Albrecht falls in love with Sarah, who’s caught between loyalty to her husband and attraction to Albrecht. Attempting to win her over, Albrecht takes Sarah to the cave that hides the map.

Spring

When spring arrives, Albrecht proposes to Sarah that they all keep their heads down and wait for the war to end. However, Sarah, hoping to discover the fate of her husband, convinces Albrecht to let one of the other women take her horse to the local fair.

At the fair, she learns that all the women’s husbands are dead, having been shot by the Nazis after they caught them attempting to blow up a railway bridge. The resistance’s teenage spy, seeing the woman together with the Germans and regarding that as collaboration, shoots her horse as a punishment.

Albrecht and his men hunt for the teenager but can’t find him. Albrecht’s radio operator decides he has had enough and runs off to rejoin the German army.

Knowing [blackout]that it’s now only a matter of time before he’s arrested and shot for desertion, Albrecht asks Sarah to leave the valley with him, aiming to get a ship to the USA, where they’ll be safe. Sarah agrees, but says she must prepare first and that she’ll meet Albrecht at the cave.[/blackout]

In fact, [blackout]Sarah has no intention of escaping with Albrecht. Instead, she burns the map and then disappears into the mountains, either to find her husband, join the resistance or, more likely, simply to die.[/blackout]

(For more on summarising stories, see How to Write a Novel Synopsis)

The Alternate History of Resistance by Owen Sheers

The alternate history premise of Resistance makes no sense whatsoever—there’s absolutely no way that a failed D-Day would lead to the UK being counter-invaded. Apart from the total naval and air supremacy of the Allied forces, and the fact that multitudes of reinforcements would still be in the UK after the failed invasion, the Germans had no landing craft, the same issue that stopped them invading in 1940.

Why Owen Sheers set the novel in 1944, I don’t know. Almost all “Britain under Nazi rule” novels (e.g. SS-GB) use the point of departure of Operation Sealion succeeding, because at least at that point the British army had very little ability to resist an invasion that somehow got past the Royal Navy and over the English Channel.

So, sadly, the scenario in Resistance is a complete non-starter, making suspension of disbelief problematic. However, it’s perhaps unfair to criticise it for its lack of plausible alternate history, because that’s not the purpose of the novel. The historical implausibility serves as a literary device, allowing Sheers to isolate his characters from the wider world, so he can tell the story he wants to tell.

Resistance by Owen Sheers: Analysis

Literary Novel

As a literary novel, Resistance, doesn’t have a straightforward plot of the sort I outline in Spy Novel Plots. The story builds not through explosive action, but through subtle shifts in loyalty and identity, its battles fought in silence. Sheers’s writing style is rich in atmosphere and makes heavy use of internal monologue. There’s very little action and a lot of symbolism. In short, it’s a literary novel examining the effect of war on both men and women.

Themes

As suggested by the title, the principal theme of Resistance is in fact ‘resistance’.

• At the start of the novel, the men all leave to physically resist the German invasion.
• The women are trapped in the valley with the German soldiers and try to resist collaborating with them as best they can, but the temptation becomes too much for many of them.
• Sarah resists the romantic attentions of Albrecht and her own attraction to him.
• Albrecht himself is resisting the Nazis in not carry out his orders to return from the valley with the painting.
• Welsh culture is under attack and the resistance to that attack is symbolised by Sarah burning the painting at the end.
• They all have to resist the harsh winter that forces them to cooperate.

Gender and Power

By focusing on the women left behind, Sheers explores how the men’s absence affects a community, especially when a new group of men arrive. The women adapt to a society without men and then have to adapt again. The new men are, of course, also soldiers, which creates another imbalance of power.

Psychogeography

The Welsh valley serves as more than just a pretty backdrop. It’s so well described that it’s a character in its own right. Its geographical isolation creates a small world where traditional rules don’t necessarily apply, allowing Sheers to explore how people change when their usual societal structures disappear.

The Map MacGuffin

The painting in the novel is a MacGuffin: an item the plot revolves around, but plays no direct role in the story. The question I ask when deciding if something is a MacGuffin is “could you replace it with some diamonds and the story would be much the same?”, and the answer here is clearly yes.

I could probably argue that the painting barely even rises to the level of MacGuffin, but is more of a plot contrivance, as the story doesn’t “revolve around it”. Albrecht arrives in the valley looking for the painting. He shows it to Sarah to prove he trusts her, and in the final chapter, Sarah destroys it, but apart from that, no one seems particularly bothered about it.

Reality: The Potential Failure of D-Day

Although the counter-invasion scenario is ridiculous, it’s entirely possible that the D-Day invasion of France could have failed. The landings on one beach, Omaha, came perilously close to failing and only extreme bravery on behalf of the US troops, and U.S. Navy destroyers that risked beaching themselves to engage the German defences directly, saved the landings. Better coordinated counterattacks by the German Panzer divisions, the failure of the deception plan, or just worse weather, could have tipped the balance during the critical period and forced the Allied troops to withdraw.

Resistance by Owen Sheers: My Verdict

Resistance might lack historical plausibility but, by subverting traditional war narrative expectations, it enables an exploration of human nature. So, suspend disbelief, and adjust your expectations to a low key, anti-war story, because Resistance is a beautifully written literary novel.

Resistance: The Movie

The movie of Resistance, directed by Amit Gupta and starring Andrea Riseborough and Tom Wlaschiha, was released in 2011.

It’s a very ‘arty’ movie, where, as in the novel, nothing much happens. Many reviews describe it as ‘boring’, with one reviewer said “watch the trailer, which has literally all the action in, and then imagine an hour of people staring into space and looking sad”, which is harsh but not entirely unfair. I must admit, I’m not sure why they thought a movie of such a literary novel would work.

Want to Read or Watch It?

Here’s the trailer for the movie:

The novel of Resistance is available on Amazon US here and Amazon UK here.

The movie of Resistance is available on Amazon US here and Amazon UK here.

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