Five American futures to read in the here and now
As the bestselling author Hernan Diaz turns from the competing histories of Trust to the distant future in new novel, Ply, we recommend four other literary takes on America's potential tomorrows.
In Trust, Pulitzer-Prize winner Hernan Diaz wrote of America's past; of 1920s New York City, the Wall Street Crash, and the nature of history, and who gets to tell it. In his new novel, Ply, he turns to the future, and takes us to an America in several centuries time, in a thrilling novel of ideas that interrogates the role of technology in a changed, but still human, society. In anticipation of this masterful new work, we look at some other literary American futures.
Ply
by Hernan Diaz
Ply takes us several centuries from now, into 'a cracked mirror world, a lot like ours; peopled by survivors, a lot like us [. . .] with a plot that swerves through loss, love, trust, betrayal, art, science, society and control,' as described by David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas. The novel follows an orphan living a transient, unsettled life before becoming a 'pincher', someone who steals electricity from the grid to resell on the black market. It's a dangerous way to live and she's soon drawn into a maze of paranoia as she follows a lead deep into an experiment that could change reality itself.
Exit Party
by Emily St John Mandel
Emily St. John Mandel, a master of literary speculative fiction, takes us to American in 2031. A months-long curfew has been lifted in LA: California has seceded from a United States at war with itself, and a party has begun. But something strange is happening. Not everyone at the celebration has been invited, or even wants to be here. Reality has been fractured, and a different world has been glimpsed.
To Paradise
by Hanya Yanagihara
To Paradise is a novel in three symphonic sections, each set in New York: one in the 1890s, one in the 1990s, one in the 2090s, and none of them quite our world (yet). In the nineteenth century, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love as they please (or so it seems), whereas Yanagihara's American future is governed by plagues and totalitarian rule. There, we follow the daughter of an influential scientist as she tries to figure out how to live without him, whilst also trying to solve the riddle of her husband's frequent disappearances. All three stories, and Americas, are united by their reckonings with the nature of humanity, and their characters' quests for an earthly paradise.
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
We are never told what actually caused the apocalypse in Cormac McCarthy's award-winning novel, but what remains in this future America is horribly obvious: very little. Only grey ash and a few people survive. A father and his young son walk under a darkened sky, heading slowly for the coast, with no idea what, if anything, awaits them there. This is a future without hope, and yet, we do find gentleness and love, alongside the best and worst of humanity.
American War
by Omar El Akkad
In Omar El Akkad’s powerful debut novel, America's future is civil war, as he explores what might happen if the country turned its most devastating ideas and weapons against itself. He does this through the story of Sarat: her father and home are gone, and she has been lied to by everyone. But she is determind to survive.
