The Restraint of Beasts

The Restraint of Beasts is a tragicomic debut novel, written by Magnus Mills. In it, an anonymous narrator "the foreman" works for a Scottish fencing company, run by Donald who is consumed by work and the desire for "efficiency". The narrator is promoted to foreman and put in charge of Tam and Richie who prefer a laissez-faire approach to work and so are at odds with both their management and their new foreman.

Mills' deadpan narrative voice is at times either revealing or naive, and both these interpretations of the narrator are supported throughout the text – it is up to the reader to decide where the narrator is ironic or genuinely emoting.