by Anita Mason
First published 2012
Hare works as a clerk at Universal Goods until his boss Jacobs frames him and destroys his career. Cast out from his job and home, Hare sleeps on the streets of a bleak Britain that mirrors Orwell's totalitarian vision. A community of marginals takes him in. These outcasts live in anarchic communes beyond society's reach. After Hare recovers his strength, he sets out to find his wife, an artist who disappeared when the government shuttered all art colleges. His search leads him to the Diggers, another group of rebels who inhabit abandoned nuclear bunkers deep underground. When young Diggers try to claim land for themselves, their rebellion fails catastrophically. Hare must guide the surviving marginals and Diggers toward the Zone, a forbidden territory where rumors claim nothing can live. His journey becomes a test of whether hope can survive in a world determined to crush individual spirit.
Genres: dystopia, speculative-fiction, social-issues, political-thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, underdog
Setting: Britain, Orwell, Zone
Period: 20th-century
272 pages · Paperback · Bloomsbury Reader
Content warnings: violence