The Wall

by John Lanchester

2019 · 276 pages

literary fiction
books
fiction & literature

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About this book

Shortlisted for the 2020 Orwell Prize

"Thrilling…A topical and deftly satirical novel." —Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal

In this taut, dystopian tale, an island nation ravaged by the Change has built an enormous concrete barrier around its coastline—the Wall. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls trapped amid the rising seas outside. A blend of the most compelling issues of our time—climate change, increasing fear, widening divisions—The Wall is a suspenseful story of love, trust, and survival.

Quotes by John Lanchester

From Wikiquote

The internet is the most effective means of giving stuff away for free that humanity has ever devised. Actually making money from it is not just hard, it may be fundamentally opposed to the character and momentum of the net. And yet this is where the newspaper business now is.
We are more connected in more ways to more people than we ever have been at any point in human history. This is changing everything, and it would be deeply strange if it didn’t change money too.
Soap prevented more deaths than penicillin. That’s technology, not science.