Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2010.
A look at a possible cataclysmic world filled with disasters - natural and man made. Beginning with the Millennium Bug we follow our protagonist as a nine year old growing up in a world lurching from one problem to the next. Although looking at a future that could have been if YK2 had happened it is constantly reminding us that just because we didn’t get that prediction right there are many more that could become reality. A thought provoking debut.
Opening on the eve of the millennium, when the world as we know it is still recognisable, we meet the nine-year-old narrator as he flees the city with his parents, just ahead of a Y2K breakdown. Next he is a teenager with a growing criminal record, taking his grandparents for a Sunday drive. In a world transformed by battles over resources, he teaches them how to steal. In time we see him struggle through strange, horrific and unexpectedly funny terrain as he goes about the no longer simple act of survival. Despite the chaos of his world, he keeps his eyes on the exit door, his heart open and his mind on what he thinks is going to happen next. Longlisted for the Guardian first book award.
