I rarely read dystopian fiction, mostly because the current state of the world feels grim enough to me, but Tünde Farrand’s Wolf Country comes from Eye Books, the same company who published the impressive An Isolated Incident, which persuaded me to give it a try. Set in 2050, Farrand’s novel explores a world gripped by rampant consumerism through the story of a woman desperate to save her husband from the fate that awaits all who can no longer pay their way.
Philip disappears on Boxing Day, the day the palatial new shopping centre he designed was to open in a televised ceremony. Instead, the complex goes up in smoke, the target of anti-capitalist activists. Alice and Philip are Mid Spenders earning their Right to Reside by meeting their monthly spending targets, often buying things they neither need nor want. Philip’s father is a dissident who lives in the Zone, a wild area outside the city where wolves are reputed to roam. The Zone is where the destitute are sent, those unable to earn their place in the Dignitoriums where the ‘non-profits’ are promised a year of bliss before they meet their painless end, or so Alice believes. At the top of this new world order are the unimaginably rich, one of whom Alice’s estranged sister Sofia has married, while at the bottom are the Low Earners who barely scrape by. As she sinks further into depression, Alice knows she’s heading for the bottom, or worse, and when it happens she decides to appeal to Sofia for help. Her path to her sister will open her eyes to the cruelty and deception of the system she had once thought benign.
Farrande unfolds her story from Alice’s perspective, weaving memories of her childhood and her life with Philip through her quest to find out what has happened to him and her decision to ask Sofia for help. Alice’s small epiphanies along the way effectively lay bare the truth behind the glossy facades of the Dignitoriums. There are uncomfortable resonances with our own times: the constant consumption of ephemeral stuff, institutionalised in the new world; slick marketing promising much but delivering little, or worse; the consequences of an ageing population and contempt for those who struggle to pay their way. It’s an all too plausible story, well told, but its ending let it down for me. Maybe our own contemporary troubles are making me cynical.
Second review of this book in as mamy days. I have to admit I’m tempted, such a great concept with pur obsession anout consumer spending.
It did ring some uncomfortably familiar bells. A rather more original take on the dystopian theme.
Dystopian is never a genre I tend to read either but this concept does sound intriguing!
It’s a little different from the more usual climate change/plague ridden dystopian tropes and all the more chilling in its familiarity, I think.
This sounds like a terrifyingly possible story, I quite like dystopian fiction, but I wonder if this would feel too real.
It is all too plausible, Ali, which didn’t help my present ‘we’re going to hell in a hell cart’ mood! That said, it’s very well done.
Fiction has a lot to live up to these days but I do like my speculative fiction to have a toe in reality so I think I would like this one.
This one’s got several toes in reality, for sure. It may well make you squirm in recognition, Cathy.
What an interesting premise. I often think that reading books like this could help prevent us going down the same path. And sometimes it helps me see how well we have it in comparison. At least for now…
Yes, it’s a little different from the usual post-apocalyptic dystopia. It would be lovely if that were the case, Naomi.
I know what you mean about finding dystopian fiction too much at the moment. This does sound good despite the ending, so I might give it a try when I feel strong enough for it – maybe if I stop watching the news for a few days first…
I’ve a strong urge to find some sand to stick my head in currently.