Dystopian & Alternative History Fiction Books

Book SynopsisIn White Carnations, the Syrian fiction writer Musa Rahum Abbas, revered in the Arab world, makes his English language debut with 101 tales that sketch life inside and outside Syria during the revolution that began in 2011. The prose in White Carnations is etched, distilled, essential. It recalls curious fables from distant foreign lands. Delicious vignettes and anecdotes are followed with the most absurd and horrific headlines of the Syrian revolution. Other tales document the furious efforts of non-poor Syrians who have escaped for a few weeks or forever. They are burrowing into superficially normal lives in the modern world. Yet their lives are not normal, because they are utterly unable to release the memories of pain and cruelty that they carry with them, like an emotional passport. Cune Press is presenting White Carnations as a companion to The Dusk Visitor. The scholar, translator, and creative writer Musa Al-Halool is the co-translator of White Carnations along with the delightful academic Sanna Dhahir. Note that Musa Al-Halool is the author of The Dusk Visitor. Both books are “light reading” on a serious subject. They explore through the tool of short fiction the fascist style that can slowly and decisively overtake democratic governments. (Yes, Syrian democracy emerged when the French left in 1946. After several years of free elections, an era of coup and counter-coup mixed with democratic maneuvering held sway as the Ba’ath Party gained strength. In 1963, the Ba’ath ousted Nazim Qudsi, considered the last democratically elected president of Syria). Whereas The Dusk Visitor’s commentary applies to several security state governments in North Africa and the Middle East, White Carnations focuses on the eruption of violence and displacement within a single country, Syria, and follows its expats as they struggle in exile. Both books hold lessons for readers who value an open civil society, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and democratic elections as a way to transfer power within democratic institutions.Trade Review“Sometimes vividly, often subtly, these short sketches convey to the reader the pain and the horror of the fighting in Syria and its effect on the Syrian people.” Arthur G. Goldschmidt, Pennsylvania State University -- Arthur G. Goldschmidt

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Book SynopsisA New York Times Notable Book “This book is, simply put, a modern classic. If you read it, you'll never forget it. Prophetic, terrifying, uplifting.” —Stephen King From the bestselling author of Ohio, a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity.In the first decades of the 21st century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat. His fate will become bound to a stunning cast of characters—a broken drug addict, a star advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, a cunning eco-terrorist, an actor turned religious zealot, and a brazen young activist named Kate Morris, who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come. From the Gulf Coast to Los Angeles, the Midwest to Washington, DC, their intertwined odysseys unfold against a stark backdrop of accelerating chaos as they summon courage, galvanize a nation, fall to their own fear, and find wild hope in the face of staggering odds. As their stories hurtle toward a spectacular climax, each faces a reckoning: what will they sacrifice to salvage humanity’s last chance at a future? A singular achievement, The Deluge is a once-in-a-generation novel that meets the moment as few works of art ever have.Trade Review"The best novel I read in 2022 was THE DELUGE, by Stephen Markley... This is what the world is going to look like in the next 10 years, if changes aren't made. More terrifying than THE STAND. Because it's real."—Stephen King, on Twitter "Immersive and ambitious, [The Deluge] shows the range of its author’s gifts: polyphonic narration, silken sentences and elaborate world-building.”—New York Times Book Review "An astonishing feat of procedural imagination, narrative construction and scientific acumen."—Los Angeles Times "A clear-eyed, climate-justice-minded page-turner. . . . Stephen Markley’s new novel is part thriller, part horror, part all-too-real. It’s scary, instructive and also entertaining."—Washington Post "This book is destined to be a classic and needs to be read by anyone who can get their hands on it.... THE DELUGE is ultimately a feel-good work that will leave readers reeling from the amount of information that has been dissected and shared." —Book Reporter “Markley’s dark depiction of the near future is filled with vivid descriptions of climate catastrophes, but his intricate network of complex characters balances precision with pathos, offering a kaleidoscopic view of humanity’s fraught relationship with its changing planet.”—Scientific American "This is a stunning achievement that may earn a place among dystopian and apocalyptic classics like 1984 and On the Beach. And perhaps most of all, it’s an unflinching and utterly compelling call to action to prevent an all-too-possible future."—Library Journal (starred review) “In this brilliant dystopian epic... [Markley's] nuanced characterizations of individuals with different approaches to the existential threat make the perils they encounter feel real as they navigate cover-ups and lies. It’s a disturbing tour de force.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) "An ambitious rendering of a forbidding future and the public and private challenges that will define it."—Kirkus “[A]mbitious, sprawling… a demanding but worthwhile read.”—Booklist "What makes you not want to put it down, is you care about the people in the book" —Seth Meyers “A ferocious, spectacular achievement. A masterful beast of intellect and heart.?Markley should take his place as a visionary of our time.” —Merritt Tierce, author of Love Me Back “A major achievement, bountifully imagined. Unquestionably one of the best novels to grapple with the climate crisis. I am haunted by it.”— Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead “A stunning and comprehensive view of a future that is both impressively imagined and terrifyingly imminent.”—Fatima Farheen Mirza, author of A Place For Us “Engrossing and timely. A towering achievement in style and substance that is at once timeless and impossibly urgent.”—Ben Philippe, author of Charming as a Verb “The Deluge is not just an impressively well-thought-out and all-too-realistic catalog of the ways in which the climate crisis might mutate into something much worse; it's also a page-turner packed with no shortage of thrills or heart.”—Sean Adams, author of The Heap “A masterclass of climate fiction. This barnstormer of a book is a must-read.”—Nana Nkweti, author of Walking on Cowrie Shells “A seminal novel and a singular achievement. The Deluge is sure to take a place alongside such great environmental books as The Overstory, The Shell Collector, Barkskins, Flight Behavior and so many others.”—Bill Cusumano, Square Books, Oxford, Mississippi “An epic work of great ambition, Stephen Markley’s The Deluge is unyielding; it marvels and it mortifies. Few books in a lifetime will make you feel as this one must and while full of every kind of blooming horror, Markley’s magnum opus is as engulfing as it is earnest.”—Jeremy Garber, Powells, Portland Oregon “A terrifyingly imagined future, made all the more believable by the real characters in the not so distant past and present. An important book.”—Bobbi Irving, Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley, Pennsylvania “One of those rare novels that manages to be deeply informative and a page-turner at the same time, The Deluge takes us on an intrigue-laden journey into a possible future that is truthful with regard to both the urgency and agency that exists today in addressing the climate crisis.”—Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor, University of Pennsylvania and author of “The New Climate War”

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Book SynopsisA beguiling blend of noir detective story and science fiction perfect for fans of Michael Chabon and Emily St. John Mandel, ?this fiercely intelligent and utterly original debut? (Anna North, New York Times bestselling author) imagines a world where emotions have been weaponized, and a small-town law enforcement agent uncovers a conspiracy to take down what?s left of American democracy.In an alternate 2009, the United States has been a second-rate power for a quarter of a century, ever since Argentina?s victory in the Falkland?s War thanks to their development of ?psychopigments.? Created as weapons, these colorful chemicals can produce almost any human emotion upon contact, and they have been embraced in the US as both pharmaceutical cure-alls and popular recreational drugs. Black market traders illegally sell everything from Blackberry Purple (which causes terror) to Sunshine Yellow (which delivers happiness). Psychopigment Enforcement Agent Kay Curtida works a beat in Daly City, just outside the ruins of San Francisco, chasing down smalltime crooks. But when an old friend shows up with a tantalizing lead on a career-making case, Curtida?s humdrum existence suddenly gets a boost. Little does she know that this case will send her down a tangled path of conspiracy and lead to an overdue reckoning with her family and with the truth of her own emotions. Told in the voice of a funny, brooding, Latinx Sam Spade, The Shamshine Blind is ?a rip-roaring beautifully crafted mash-up of cop noir, sci-fi, and alt-history that left me dazzled by its prescience and literary zing? (Leah Hampton, author of F*ckface).

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Book Synopsis

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