At the Science Fiction Book Club we try to introduce readers to the wide range of international SF that is regularly published and this time we are very proud to schedule an amazing work from the acclaimed Swedish writer Ninni Holmqvist.
On her fiftieth birthday, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material: a state-of-the-art facility in Sweden where she will make new friends, enjoy generous recreational activities and live out her remaining days in comfort with people who are just like her. Here, women over the age of fifty and men over the age of sixty who are single and childless are saved from a life devoid of value and converted into productive members of society. The price? Their bodies, harvested piece by piece for the ‘necessary’ ones (those on whom children depend) and sometimes their minds, as they take part in social and psychological experiments, until the day comes when they make their Final Donation and complete their purpose in life. Despite the ruthless nature of this practice, the ethos of this near-future society and the Unit is to take care of others. Resigned to her fate as a ‘dispensable’, Dorrit finds her days there to be peaceful and consoling. For the first time in her life she no longer feels like an outsider – a single woman in a world of married couples with children. But when she meets a man inside the Unit and falls in love, everything changes…
“Creepily profound and most provocative.”
(Kirkus Reviews)
“[A] chilling, stunning debut novel … Holmqvist’s fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans.”
(Booklist)
“The power of The Unit is its subtlety. Highly recommended.”
(Readmorebooks.wordpress.com)
“An exploration of female desire, human need, and the purpose of life.”
(Publishers Weekly)
“The Unit rattled me in a way few dystopian novels have … It’s a story that will stick with me.”
(shelflove.wordpress.com)
“Beautifully haunting … This is one of the best books I’ve read over the past two years … Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book you’ll be discussing with others long after you’re done reading it.”
(Orlando Sentinel)
‘A haunting, deadpan tale set vaguely in the Scandinavian future, Holmqvist’s turns the screw, presenting a set of events so miraculous and abominable that they literally made me gasp.’
(Washington Post)
“Holmqvist handles her dystopia with muted, subtle care…Neither satirical nor polemical, ‘The Unit’ manages to express a fair degree of moral outrage without ever moralizing…it has enough spooks to make it a feminist, philosophical page-turner.”
(Time Out Chicago)
‘Haunting… Holmqvist evocatively details the experiences of a woman who falls in love with another resident, and at least momentarily attempts to escape her fate.’
(The New Yorker)
“Savagely dystopian … remarkably deft.”
(Barnes and Noble Review)
Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable.”
(More Magazine)
“Holmqvist gives us a lesson in human nature and social engineering through a story that is spare, compelling, and all too human.”
(Psychiatric Services)
“Compelling, chilling in spots, and at times heartbreaking.”
(Flashlight Worthy)
“A remarkably thought-provoking novel.”
(Reading Matters)
“Holmqvist paces her revelations superbly and the reader is gripped by the atmosphere of slowly mounting claustrophobia.”
(New Internationalist)
“For a debut novel I thought it was stunning” Zoe Page
(Bookbag – www.bookbag.com)
“This dystopian world is described with such exquisite balance between its luxuries and cruelties that the reader is emotionally drawn in and made to face up to often uncomfortable and challenging ethical dilemmas. I cannot recommend this novel, nor signal Holmquist’s evident talent as an author strongly enough; it is an excellent book.”
(What’s On UK?)
“I found this one riveting from start to finish. It could happily find a place on school reading lists alongside Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.” “Chilling, humorous, poignant, thought-provoking, and immensely readable, this is perfect reading-group material which cannot fail to provoke discussion.”
(New Books)
“What a striking, remarkable book — one of the best I’ve read in a long time.”
(Frank Huyler)