Anthem by Noah Hawley

WHEN YOU ARE PHYSICALLY ATTACHED TO A BOOK & NEED TO READ IT AT ALL TIMES

Yes I annoyed various people by reading instead of socialising but Bloody hell. 

What a way to start our 2023 recommendations. I have not read such a profound, brilliant, satirical, frightening, clever book in a long time.

Imagine if an environmentalist, psychiatrist, philosopher, political commentator, investigative journalist, mystic, & thriller author sat down & wrote a dystopian novel describing the environmental issues, political divisiveness, fragility of mental health & the affect of all this chaos on the kids growing up around it. Anthem would be the result.

This is uncomfortable reading that genuinely took my breath away on every other page. 

It is about the whirlwind of tumult that is our lives. It’s fiction, but you will find yourself googling facts & figures regularly to ascertain how close to reality this is. Parts are based on Trump, Jeffrey Epstein & the climate crisis. So power, money, propaganda, influence, & the existential threat facing us all. 

Please note the trigger warnings. All over the world teens are ending their own lives. People are now diametrically opposed from another, there is no middle ground. Science has never been so derided. The environment is at breaking point yet we are all immersed in a sea of disinformation, celebrity dramas & hating the other side. A group of teens are on a quest led by a prophet to save girls imprisoned in a peadophilic billionaires mansion. A previous President rails against a stolen election. The earth burns. Sound familiar??

This is pure satire. It’s funny. It’s thought provoking to a ridiculous degree – I had to take it everywhere & read regardless of life/kids but I kept on putting it down to process. There is a fantasy element added by the use of a prophet but if I were to write a thesis on it I would argue he was a literary device to demonstrate our need to believe in something at the hardest times. 

I felt approximately 20% more intelligent after the final page. Its very readable, a bit far fetched at points yet tremendously compelling. Hawley made my head spin.

Ad:PR Thank you @hodderbooks for the review copy