First published 2025
Dr. Hugo Rustin operates as chief surgeon at Imperial College Hospital while his world dissolves. An empire has fallen apart from boredom and lost faith. The Emergency brings youth rebellions among urban Burghers and rural Yeomen who adopt radical ideas about humanity. Rustin grows distant from his city and family. His wife Annabelle discovers purpose in their transformed community. His teenage daughter Selva rejects everything her father believes. A hospital incident destroys Rustin's reputation. He sets out on a dangerous journey to the countryside seeking redemption. Selva travels with him as companion. The conflict between Burghers and Yeomen builds toward crisis around them. Packer examines what people owe each other when generations and classes split apart. The story asks which human connections survive when society collapses.
Genres: dystopia, literary-fiction, 21st-century, political-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, redemption
Setting: Imperial College Hospital, Countryside
Period: 21st-century
390 pages · Kindle Edition · Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Content warnings: violence