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The Last Day
The Last Day is more than a moving call to arms for speakers of minority languages facing extinction; at its core, it's a tragic human-scale story played out between the few figures who could have stopped the madness before it was too late. It is, moreover, a meditation on themes like free will, artificial intelligence and the socio-historical processes that contribute towards the death of a nation. These themes are as relevant now – if not more so – as they were when the novel was written.
With science fiction tropes recalling Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut and more recently Olga Ravn's The Employees, philosophical reflections in the vein of Dostoyevsky's Notes From the Underground, and its postmodern form, The Last Day is a testament to the depth and creativity of Welsh literature. Its translation into English is long overdue.
With science fiction tropes recalling Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut and more recently Olga Ravn's The Employees, philosophical reflections in the vein of Dostoyevsky's Notes From the Underground, and its postmodern form, The Last Day is a testament to the depth and creativity of Welsh literature. Its translation into English is long overdue.
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 25, 2024
I want to write a whole damn essay about this book. I’m so glad that this book has been translated into English so others can enjoy this mind blowing cult classic, although something in me thinks that Owain Owain may not have supported this idea, having founded the The Dragon’s Tongue - the Welsh Language Society - and English being the language of the Computer General after all.
Owain predicted the internet in 1969. It seems he had the same prophetic abilities as Orwell and Huxley, both of whose books are named multiple time in this work as texts of the ‘lost century’, the 20th Century that the prologue explains is forgotten save for diaries of a Welsh man named Marc and smattering of correspondences from his family, lovers and friends.
Marc’s remaining diaries cover his time at university in the 40s and then from the end of 1999 where he spends his last 6 months at Sunset House before the ‘day of honour’ - the day where the Rest finally assimilate their bodily resources to become unhuman and food for the state.
But Marc has a secret, a defense that protects him from assimilation, a secret language that the machine dictator, the computer general, cannot translate.
This is a book about the power of minority languages, and those that colonise and manipulate those minorities to their own ends. It’s a philosophical treatise on ignorance and bliss and knowledge and power. It’s a book about the dangers of technology and assimilation and data mining, that could so easily have been written in 2024. It’s also a book about love, and the sacrifices people can make for and on behalf of other people.
For fans of Orwell, Huxley, Atwood, Vonnegut and more recently Olga Ravn, while also being completely singular. This is a book you’re going to want to read twice (and I already have).
Owain predicted the internet in 1969. It seems he had the same prophetic abilities as Orwell and Huxley, both of whose books are named multiple time in this work as texts of the ‘lost century’, the 20th Century that the prologue explains is forgotten save for diaries of a Welsh man named Marc and smattering of correspondences from his family, lovers and friends.
Marc’s remaining diaries cover his time at university in the 40s and then from the end of 1999 where he spends his last 6 months at Sunset House before the ‘day of honour’ - the day where the Rest finally assimilate their bodily resources to become unhuman and food for the state.
But Marc has a secret, a defense that protects him from assimilation, a secret language that the machine dictator, the computer general, cannot translate.
This is a book about the power of minority languages, and those that colonise and manipulate those minorities to their own ends. It’s a philosophical treatise on ignorance and bliss and knowledge and power. It’s a book about the dangers of technology and assimilation and data mining, that could so easily have been written in 2024. It’s also a book about love, and the sacrifices people can make for and on behalf of other people.
For fans of Orwell, Huxley, Atwood, Vonnegut and more recently Olga Ravn, while also being completely singular. This is a book you’re going to want to read twice (and I already have).
July 1, 2025
I loved the premise - a man living under surveillance in a dystopian world is able to write his true thoughts because he writes in Welsh, a language which has been deleted from the database of the computer which reads everyone’s diaries. Very strong opening chapters. However the promise wore out as the book continued. By the end, I felt it hadn’t said anything. The world didn’t feel full and real, as if the author didn’t really know what was going on either. And the reason for falling into dystopia was also a bit vague and a little dodgy… His two female love interests were both metaphors rather than characters, which bothers me, however I did enjoy the found-document style of narrative.
July 3, 2025
I think there were elements of this that I really liked, I think Emyr Wallace Humphreys has done a beautiful job with the translation and that a lot of the pensive prose read very nicely. I think the read was slightly frustrating though because it was on the edge of making an interesting point about how we use technology and our relationships with computers and AI (I acknowledge that the Welsh source text was published in the 70s), but doesn't quite fully make that point and ends on a bit of a flat note. I skimmed through the Welsh language edition and to be honest, I think the concept feels stronger in the Welsh, by no fault of the translator at all, simply because when I read about this stuff in Welsh, when I see a language I view as quite warm and homely and then physically SEE this brutalist dystopian language mixed in, it feels more visceral, it feels more jarring and wrong? Whereas because I've read a lot more sci-fi in English, I don't get that same effect I think. Maybe I'd feel differently though if I read more in Welsh? I don't know.
There is also the problematic treatment of the female characters as well as Cwansa. I think the book could've been massively improved if those characters had been given a bit more development. I think as it is they've been used as allegorical metaphors - I think Siwsan is ease and Anna is choice and Cwansa is power/justice (easily corrupted). It felt a lot like it was about human responsibility to act and the terror of making a choice and the ease of letting computers make choices for you. Which is an interesting idea I think, but could've been made more strongly and emotively in the book. By the end, I found that I felt a bit ambivalent to what was happening.
There is also the problematic treatment of the female characters as well as Cwansa. I think the book could've been massively improved if those characters had been given a bit more development. I think as it is they've been used as allegorical metaphors - I think Siwsan is ease and Anna is choice and Cwansa is power/justice (easily corrupted). It felt a lot like it was about human responsibility to act and the terror of making a choice and the ease of letting computers make choices for you. Which is an interesting idea I think, but could've been made more strongly and emotively in the book. By the end, I found that I felt a bit ambivalent to what was happening.
July 6, 2025
Bardzo ciekawa pozycja. Dystopijna wizja świata jest opisana bardzo ogólnie, pozostawiając wiele do interpretacji czytelnika, jednak wciąż potrafi zafascynować. Bardzo podobał mi się językowy aspekt fabuły - dzienniki Marka przetrwały tylko dlatego, że superkomputer nie mógł ich "strawić". Nabiera to większego sensu dzięki posłowiu i ówczesnej sytuacji języka walijskiego, co pozwala zrozumieć tę książkę odrobinę bardziej. Podobał mi się też fakt, że Marek najprawdopodobniej przyczynił się do zgubienia ludzkości przez swoją bezczynność oraz to, że Braterstwo - na początku mała społeczność mająca łączyć mniejszości - jakimś sposobem przekształciła się w autorytarną partię niszczącą różnorodność ludzkości. To fascynujące, i szkoda że tej przemianie nie zostało poświęcone rozwinięcie.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 9, 2025
A very good (post)modernist epistolary novella about the loss of independence, identity, and freedom.
September 19, 2024
I read the English translation, so probably lost some of the subtleties, but it's still shocking and disturbing.
November 19, 2024
I do think this stands up to the classics it’s put in a basket with, although sometimes stuff is lost in the translation. Made a certainly interesting read, especially as someone coming from a tiny, super Welshie village! I’ll be hunting for the original. This would do well on the school syllabus.
May 9, 2025
Marc and Anna walked so Connell and Marianne could run 😞🙏🙏
June 10, 2025
fratolish hiang perpeczki
Moje ulubione doświadczenia lekturowe to te najmniej spodziewane. Jeszcze przed paroma dniami nie miałem pojęcia, że w latach sześćdziesiątych w Walii powstała ta wspaniała powieść dystopijna, mało tego, nie wiedziałem, że ukazuje się polski przekład. Teraz, gdy pochłonąłem tę niewielką książkę w jeden wieczór, chciałbym gorąco polecić ją każdemu wielbicielowi pesymistycznie nastawionej fantastyki z filozoficznym zacięciem, ale też każdemu miłośnikowi dobrej literatury. Brawurowy przekład Marty Listewnik pozwala nam rozsmakować się w niełatwej prozie Owaina, nie zatracając ani grama ładunku emocjonalnego opowieści, skupiającej się na tym, co najważniejsze - wolności, miłości i tym wszystkim, co czyni nas ludźmi.
Przedstawiona w listach i dziennikach fabuła rozłożona jest na cztery plany czasowe. Na początku poznajemy zakończenie całej historii, co tym silniej pozwala wybrzmieć kolejnym zapiskom, z których każdy ujawnia nam okruch dziejów bohatera i grupy przyjaciół, przechodząc z płaszczyzny lokalnej do wymiaru globalnego. Owain nie prowadzi czytelnika za rękę, pełno tu niedopowiedzeń i niejasności - to jedna z tych powieści, które wręcz proszą się o ponowną lekturę.
Podkreślić należy staranność, z jaką przygotowano polskie wydanie książki: pieczołowicie odtworzona została okładka pierwszego wydania walijskiego (nawet font!) z ilustracją autora, tłumaczka opatrzyła zaś tekst posłowiem, w którym zwraca uwagę na rozmaite niuanse prozy Owaina, jak i zapoznaje nas ze skomplikowanymi dziejami oryginału, który nawet w ojczyźnie autora popadł w zapomnienie na pół wieku. Co istotne w przeciwieństwie do niedawnego przekładu na angielski (powstał w 2024 roku, czyli już po polskim przekładzie!) treść powieści nie została ocenzurowana. Ostatni dzień ukazuje się nakładem niewielkiego wydawnictwa, ale mam szczerą nadzieję, że dotrze do jak najszerszego grona czytelników - nie jest to bowiem ramotka sprzed pół wieku, ale utwór jak najbardziej aktualny, może dziś nawet bardziej niż wtedy.
Moje ulubione doświadczenia lekturowe to te najmniej spodziewane. Jeszcze przed paroma dniami nie miałem pojęcia, że w latach sześćdziesiątych w Walii powstała ta wspaniała powieść dystopijna, mało tego, nie wiedziałem, że ukazuje się polski przekład. Teraz, gdy pochłonąłem tę niewielką książkę w jeden wieczór, chciałbym gorąco polecić ją każdemu wielbicielowi pesymistycznie nastawionej fantastyki z filozoficznym zacięciem, ale też każdemu miłośnikowi dobrej literatury. Brawurowy przekład Marty Listewnik pozwala nam rozsmakować się w niełatwej prozie Owaina, nie zatracając ani grama ładunku emocjonalnego opowieści, skupiającej się na tym, co najważniejsze - wolności, miłości i tym wszystkim, co czyni nas ludźmi.
Przedstawiona w listach i dziennikach fabuła rozłożona jest na cztery plany czasowe. Na początku poznajemy zakończenie całej historii, co tym silniej pozwala wybrzmieć kolejnym zapiskom, z których każdy ujawnia nam okruch dziejów bohatera i grupy przyjaciół, przechodząc z płaszczyzny lokalnej do wymiaru globalnego. Owain nie prowadzi czytelnika za rękę, pełno tu niedopowiedzeń i niejasności - to jedna z tych powieści, które wręcz proszą się o ponowną lekturę.
Podkreślić należy staranność, z jaką przygotowano polskie wydanie książki: pieczołowicie odtworzona została okładka pierwszego wydania walijskiego (nawet font!) z ilustracją autora, tłumaczka opatrzyła zaś tekst posłowiem, w którym zwraca uwagę na rozmaite niuanse prozy Owaina, jak i zapoznaje nas ze skomplikowanymi dziejami oryginału, który nawet w ojczyźnie autora popadł w zapomnienie na pół wieku. Co istotne w przeciwieństwie do niedawnego przekładu na angielski (powstał w 2024 roku, czyli już po polskim przekładzie!) treść powieści nie została ocenzurowana. Ostatni dzień ukazuje się nakładem niewielkiego wydawnictwa, ale mam szczerą nadzieję, że dotrze do jak najszerszego grona czytelników - nie jest to bowiem ramotka sprzed pół wieku, ale utwór jak najbardziej aktualny, może dziś nawet bardziej niż wtedy.
October 6, 2025
A mashup of Brave New World and 1984 with a Welsh twist. It was an unexpected find that I had to read twice. The good thing is that it is less than 110 pages long. The narration is non-linear, so during my first read I was constantly lost with no clue were things were going. On a second read, I could pick up the key details and really enjoy the plot.
Like I said, it is a short book. In a way, it reads more like a sketch of a novel rather than a novel itself. I really enjoyed the premise: much of the country (world?) has been taken over by The Council of Fraternities and its assimilation rays that guarantee that everybody will be docile sheep living in perfect harmony and homogeneity. That includes a homogeneous language (*aka* English).
The main character, Marc, and a Few other "rebels" have successfully inserted a small piece of platinum in their heads that prevent the worst effects of the assimilation rays. They manage to keep their individuality and communicate in Welsh (because the Fraternities don't understand Welsh anymore) to a nondescript resistance Omega-Delta.
However, when it comes to the rest of characters, the novel is very much lacking. I still do not fully understand the role of Pedr, Cwansa, Anna, and Siswan. I would definitely read a series where this premise and characters are fleshed out.
Like I said, it is a short book. In a way, it reads more like a sketch of a novel rather than a novel itself. I really enjoyed the premise: much of the country (world?) has been taken over by The Council of Fraternities and its assimilation rays that guarantee that everybody will be docile sheep living in perfect harmony and homogeneity. That includes a homogeneous language (*aka* English).
The main character, Marc, and a Few other "rebels" have successfully inserted a small piece of platinum in their heads that prevent the worst effects of the assimilation rays. They manage to keep their individuality and communicate in Welsh (because the Fraternities don't understand Welsh anymore) to a nondescript resistance Omega-Delta.
However, when it comes to the rest of characters, the novel is very much lacking. I still do not fully understand the role of Pedr, Cwansa, Anna, and Siswan. I would definitely read a series where this premise and characters are fleshed out.
December 20, 2020
Piti mai dim ond fel e-lyfr (am ddim) mae hwn ar gael, ond stori o flaen ei hoes, fendigedig!
July 14, 2024
I've been waiting a few years to read this since I heard of this dystopian novel, must admit I never thought it would be translated. Glad it has, as I think it does stand up to the classics it is mentioned alongside. A very human drama in the forefront of a wider dystopian world being uncovered. I really liked it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews