Anthem

Amazon.com Review An Amazon Best Book of January 2022: Noah Hawley submits his bid for most interesting novel of the new year. In Anthem, the earth is heating up, as is global anxiety. Guns and opioids are everywhere. Political strife and financial inequality have driven our country to the breaking point. Sound familiar? Hawley has turned up the dial on the problems that we all know exist in this world, bravely (and depending on your world view, perhaps divisively) combing through them and explicating while he builds a story that gathers momentum along the way. Anyone who has seen the television series Fargo (which he created and writes) or who has read his previous novels (particularly his last book Before the Fall) knows that Hawley is a unique talent. He is also a deep thinker. In Anthem, a pandemic of mass suicide among young people is the jumping off point for the story—and in the end, it is young people who will take their future into their own hands. You will recognize much in terms of people and issues here, but you will also be pulled into an adventure that only a few authors could write so well. —Chris Schluep, Amazon Editor Product Description What does it take to change the world? The “epic adventure” (Booklist) of a band of unlikely heroes on a quest to save one innocent life who may end up saving us all.For decades, Judge Margot Burr-Nadir has worked tirelessly, case by case, to administer justice from the federal bench of the Eastern District of the United States. Her position already seems like the highest possible honor. So she is surprised when a call comes from the President of the United States inviting her to accept his nomination to the Supreme Court—not least because in choosing her, in an unprecedented attempt to heal a divided nation, the President has reached across party lines.For Margot, this should be among the brightest spots of an already charmed existence. But the call comes on a family trip to visit their oldest daughter, Story, who has, without warning, vanished as if spirited away in the middle of the night by forces unseen. Margot soon finds herself thrust onto the national stage in the middle of every parent’s worst nightmare.The desperate search for Story’s whereabouts soon intersects with the mission of teenagers Simon Oliver, Louise Conklin, and a young man known only as the Prophet. Together, they have escaped from the Float Anxiety Abatement Center in Chicago on the trail of man known as The Wizard: an unimaginably wealthy, almost mythical figure of unspeakable evil who has for years been taking whatever he wants without reaping the consequences. Stopping him, this band of young people hopes to accomplish what their elders can’t or won’t do: fix a broken world.Noah Hawley’s new novel is an adventure that finds unquenchable lights in dark corners. Unforgettably vivid characters and a plot as fast and bright as pop cinema blend in a Vonnegutian story that is as timeless as a Grimm’s fairy tale. It is a leap into the idiosyncratic pulse of the American heart, written with the bravado, literary power, and feverish foresight that have made Hawley one of our most essential writers. Review “Hawley taps into our existential anxiety—and transforms it into a hefty page turner that’s equal parts horrific, catastrophic and, at times, strangely entertaining.”―New York Times Book Review“Hawley the fiction writer is at his best when pitching his taut setup and its well-drawn cast of characters.”―USA Today“Anthem is a Great American Novel for these tumultuous times—a provocative work of fiction that sees to the heart of things, cuts through the noise, and asks, 'How can we change, before it’s too late?'"―Esquire“A blistering thriller that follows a group of teenagers on an adventure through an apocalyptic America much like our own.”―Entertainment Weekly“Terrifying, expertly crafted literary thriller.”―Oprah Daily, “The 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2022”“Hawley creates an all-t