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John Lanchester: The Wall (Hardcover, 2019, W. W. Norton & Company) 4 stars

A Possible Future, and a Depressing One

4 stars

With the seas rising, an unnamed area surrounds itself with a barrier wall to keep out both the sea, and the people outside who are barely surviving on boats and rafts. Without spoilers, I’ll say that readers get to see both sides of this wall.

There are so many correlations between the dystopian world of The Wall and today’s world of class division, and fear of ‘the other’. It’s allegory, satire, and warning all in one.

Grim, but fascinating.