{"product_id":"2026200018388-secondhand-the-patriots","title":"The Patriots","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBehind the respectable façade of post-war Britain, loyalties fracture and moral certainties crumble in James Barlow's tense and unsparing novel, The Patriots. Set against the anxious social climate of mid-twentieth-century England, the novel follows its protagonists through a web of political tension, personal betrayal, and ideological conflict, where the very definition of patriotism is tested at every turn. Barlow constructs a narrative that is at once intimate and expansive, grounding grand national questions in the lives of ordinary men and women forced to confront what they truly believe in.\n\nBarlow was celebrated for his unflinching, realist prose and his acute observation of the British class system and its hypocrisies, and The Patriots stands as a compelling example of that craft. The novel sits firmly within the tradition of British social fiction, drawing comparisons to the work of John Braine and Alan Sillitoe in its refusal to romanticise struggle or ideology. Barlow's characters are rendered with psychological precision, their contradictions laid bare with cool, authoritative clarity — leaving the reader to question where loyalty ends and complicity begins.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50813032759515,"sku":"2026200018388-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/d5c5c9f2-fe02-416f-bfdb-3654daa369c9.png?v=1792371968","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200018388-secondhand-the-patriots","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}