Screenshot_2019-04-08 Wolf Country - W F Howes LtdFrom Goodreads: “London, 2050. The socio-economic crisis of recent decades is over and consumerism is thriving.
Ownership of land outside the city is the preserve of a tiny elite, and the rest of the population must spend to earn a Right to Reside. Ageing has been abolished thanks to a radical new approach, replacing retirement with blissful euthanasia at a Dignitorium.
When architect Philip goes missing, his wife, Alice, risks losing her home and her status, and begins to question the society in which she was raised. Her search for him uncovers some horrifying truths about the fate of her own family and the reality behind the new social order.”

My Review

This was such a good audiobook. It’s a quiet dystopian, not the sort full of marauding motorbike gangs or zombies, aspects of near future novels I’m not keen on. What I liked about this story was the fact that I could imagine something like this happening in the future. I kept thinking where I would fit into this sort of society or perhaps I wouldn’t and I’d be sent to the Dignitorium?

I liked Alice the main character and enjoyed the way she told her story, although I must admit I was a bit confused at times when her her thoughts about past events were intermingled with the present day. I’m glad I had an ebook (thanks to the publishers, Lightning Books) beside me as I listened to the audiobook as it really helped me to understand what was going on.

The mystery of what happened to her husband’s disappearance took Alice on quite a journey of self-discovery. She’d always accepted what she’d been told about ‘the collapse’ and that the new ways being better that the old, unlike her husband Philip who’d always questioned everything and couldn’t understand why she didn’t. I must admit that at one point I thought Alice’s behaviour was incredibly naive and almost cringed as she went about trying to solve some of her problems. I can’t say much more about the mystery as it will spoilt it for you, but it was really good and there were real surprises towards the end.

Amaka Okafor the narrator for this book was fantastic, She had a quite an intimate voice which was oddly comforting for such a bleak story. This is the first time I’ve come across her voice talents and will definitely be adding her to my list of favourite narrators.

I thoroughly recommend this one if you enjoy chillingly plausible novels set in the near future.

 

 

 

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