Arcade Publishing: 8/21/18
eBook review copy; 160 pages
hardcover ISBN-13: 9781628728811
2020 by Kenneth Steven is a highly recommended dystopian novel set in Great Britain about a country divided, a terrorist attack, and an populist leader.
2020 is a short, but timely novel. The narrative follows a major terrorist attack on a train traveling between Edinburgh and London. The story is told through wildly different sources, interviews, witnesses, and news stories from a wide cross-section of society. The reader must then piece together the total picture of what happened and the aftermath through these first person accounts. The result is a disturbing picture of a terrorist account and the extreme response to it.
Apparently 2020 was written in 2015, but reads as if it were written today. The first person accounts are all insights into vastly different points-of-view and reactions to a horrible attack. Steven clearly captures the societal division in the UK, but this same division can be seen in other countries as well. Steven covers all sides of the public opinion, so this is a multi-sided focus. After reading 2020, I needed some thinking time - and I really believe that is the whole point of the novel. Yes, it is a novel, but even more it really is a modern day parable. The US version will be released in August.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.
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