I Am Sovereign (2019) is typical Barker, where typical means quirky characters, pop culture references, typographical fun, and a playful narrative. Admittedly it’s a style that took a couple of her books for me to fully appreciate it.

The whole story is told over the course of a twenty minute house viewing in Llandudno, as estate agent Avigail shows Wang Shue and Yang Yue around Charles’s house, with all four present. Charles is a bespoke teddy bear designer, and his refusal to sell his wares has led to the need to sell the house. There’s a definite comic scenario here as he makes efforts to dissuade potential buyers, while Avigail eyes the sale.

It may be twenty minutes in ‘book time’, but Barker uses the pages to take deeper dives into these characters minds, exploring deeper motivations. Charles is a user of self-help guides, trying to stifle his inner critic and reach his potential; Avigail, having left her Hasidic past behind, searches for new meaning and forms of inclusion, finding it in YouTube; Yang Yue seeks general validation; and nobody really knows what Wang Shue wants as Barker keeps her on the periphery, always on her phone.

For all its fun and games there comes the point where the mundane must make way for the profound, if the book is to make an impact. And when that time comes the story explodes in an unexpected and satisfying direction.

At the heart of it all, as the title suggests, is the question of sovereignty, something both personal and, in light of recent events, political. Barker, with her characters, questions her rights of control (by way of a spellchecker’s proposed uniformity (ie Avigail v Abigail)) as well as her characters’ own authority, and, in reference to an excised character, questions on immigration and who we can keep in or out.

Overall the book is more concerned with the author, and questions on what the author, in fiction, is permitted, aligning these questions with wider societal concerns. Her comic style and breezy way with words easily bridges the gap between high and low culture, providing plenty of entertainment even when it fails to fully hit the mark.