Anthem

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What to expect

The first big novel of 2022: an epic literary thriller set where America is right now, in which a band of unlikely heroes sets out on a quest to save one innocent life - and might end up saving us all.

The wheels are coming off in America. Opioid addictions accelerate unstoppably. Environmental collapse can be read in every weather report. Vigilante bands take over streets at night, wearing clownface makeup. The very idea of government, of citizenship, is challenged daily. And something is happening to teenagers across the country, spreading through memes only they know.

At the Float Anxiety Abatement Center, in a suburb of Chicago, Simon Oliver is trying to recover from his sister's tragic passing. He breaks out to join a woman named Louise and a man called The Prophet on a quest as urgent as it is enigmatic. Who lies at the end of the road? A man known as The Wizard, whose past encounter with Louise sparked her own collapse. Their quest becomes a rescue mission when they join up with a man whose sister is being held captive by The Wizard, impregnated and imprisoned in a tower.

Noah Hawley's new novel is a freewheeling adventure that finds unquenchable lights in dark corners. Unforgettably vivid characters and a plot as fast and bright as pop cinema blend in a Vonnegutian story that is as timeless as a Grimm's fairy tale. It is a leap into the idiosyncratic pulse of the American heart, written with the bravado, literary power, and feverish foresight that have made Hawley one of our most essential writers.

(P) 2022 Hachette Audio

Critics Review

  • Epic… Apart from being the Emmy award-winning creator of the superb television series Fargo, the American author Noah Hawley is a talented deviser of high-class literary thrillers… It’s a fabulous worst-of-all-fears scenario… Hawley attacks his narrative from a broad, TV drama-ish viewpoint, assembling a large, intercutting cast of characters

    The Sunday Times
  • In Anthem, Hawley has written some of the most savage satire since Jonathan Swift . . . The plot-rich, cinematic story moves swiftly and compellingly, exciting reader interest and empathy. Anthem is truly an epic adventure

    Booklist
  • An all-too-plausible dystopia rendered believable through matter-of-fact prose. Hawley makes this sing by combining the social commentary of a Margaret Atwood novel with the horrors of a Stephen King book

    Publishers Weekly
  • Hawley is a TV veteran, and he knows how to quickly establish character, maintain pacing, and write excellent action scenes

    Kirkus Reviews
  • Hawley has crafted an explosive, multi-genre American novel, offering entertaining cultural commentary as well as intellectually courageous observations on empathy, politics and corruption

    shelf-awareness.com
  • Noah Hawley confirms his place as one of the most essential writers of our times

    Belfast Telegraph, Books of the Year

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