We are delighted to reveal the paperback cover for The Transition by Luke Kennard. It’s Black Mirror meets David Nicholls in this dark and funny novel about love in dystopian times.
Like most people my age I read the ubiquitous ‘big three’ dystopian novels (Atwood, Huxley, Orwell) in year 9 English and wrote some execrable essays about characterisation in them. Thanks to the pre-internet generosity of my teacher (and because she suspected it might be a good way of weaning me off the pulp space-operas I ploughed through by the shelf) I also walked around with Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange and Riddley Walker in my vast hold-all. (I carried every book for every subject with me at all times because I was terrified of forgetting one). Perhaps the two which made the biggest impact on me – deep cuts from my newly-qualified teacher’s collection – were We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and Nabokov’s Bend Sinister. The latter is a novel so spiritually horrifying that the author interjects towards the end to remind us that it isn’t real.
Donald Trump is President-elect of the United States of America. Mainstream media and at least 50% of the US population (plus approximately 100% of the world) are still reeling. Here’s how 4th Estate authors met the news the morning of November 9th, 2016.
