The first thing to be said about Russell Hoban's apocalyptic fable [Riddley Walker] is that it is compulsive reading. From the first words … you are immersed in a world that is total, maverick and disturbing—so much so that at times I was obliged to set the book aside and turn to some tried familiar favourite for assurance both literary and otherwise. It is strong stuff—and ambitious stuff, too: Russell Hoban is considering human nature, no less, and is not optimistic, to put it gently….

Now if there are two ingredients that would normally have me throw a book across the room after the second page they are future prediction and authorial messing around with language. Jabberwocky, to my mind, is of no literary interest whatsoever; and the novelist's concern is the human condition not prophecy (or historical reconstruction, for that matter, though best not to get...