This is a pretty unsettling and powerfully compelling debut, well worth a read for the original storyline alone. The world seems to stop and some people hear the words ‘My Children. Do not be afraid’. Confusion and terror reign and we follow the lives of 26 people not all of which heard the message. This gripping is a high concept dystopian thriller that will appeal to fans of Inception or Flashforward and we look forward to seeing what James Smythe follows it up with.
A global thriller presenting an apocalyptic vision of a world on the brink of despair and destruction. What would you do if the world was brought to a standstill? If you heard deafening static followed by the words, 'My children. Do not be afraid'? Would you turn to God? Subscribe to the conspiracy theories? Or put your faith in science and a rational explanation? The lives of all twenty-six people in this account are affected by the message. Most because they heard it. Some because they didn't. The Testimony - a gripping story of the world brought to its knees and of its people, confused and afraid.
'[An] utterly gripping and highly original debut novel...a tour de force of virtuoso writing that explodes off the page' DAILY MAIL
'As if Philip K Dick and David Mitchell had collaborated on an episode of The West Wing ... unsettling, gripping and hugely thought-provoking' FHM
'A fiercely-imagined dystopia of the near future. Intelligent, visionary and compulsively readable' ALEX PRESTON, author of The Revelations
'A literary post-apocalyptic novel built around a clever conceit' GUARDIAN
Author
About James Smythe
James Smythe was born in London in 1980. Since completing a PhD in Cardiff University, he has taught creative writing, and is currently writer/narrative designer for a major forthcoming video game. He lives on the grounds of a boarding school in West Sussex. He has also written a novel called The Testimony, which was published by Blue Door/HarperCollins in 2011.
