I started out pitying Thomas Senlin, the mild-mannered headmaster out of his depth in both marriage and the hectic surroundings of the Tower, thrown into confusion and despair at the loss of his wife. Nothing is quite as it seems and there are some dark surprises for the unwary tourist who doesn't know who or what to trust.
At the same time the invention of the setting, the details in each of the strikingly different levels of the Tower, are incredible and mean that each location has its own atmosphere, whether basic or opulent, oil-lit or electrified. The mysteries of the Tower itself haunt the novel, and its baffling systems and arbitrary justice are as chilling as anything Kafka wrote.
Senlin Ascends is Josiah Bancroft's first novel and what a spectacular debut it is, though it should be noted that this isn't strictly new but a traditionally published edition of a book he self-published in 2013. For all his background reading before the trip, he is ill-prepared for what he finds in the Tower, both its marvels and its horrors, and thus begins Thomas Senlin's arduous quest to recover his wife. When he loses sight of Marya shortly after their arrival, he has no option but to look for her in this strange and overwhelming place. It's a place he's read books about, taught his pupils about, and longed to visit, but the bustling and chaotic surroundings of the Tower in the desert are a long way from the quiet fishing village in which Senlin teaches. He and his young wife Marya are travelling on a sleeper train across Ur to that engineering marvel, that fabled centre of culture, the Tower of Babel. Thomas Senlin embarks on his honeymoon with high hopes.
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