Staff Pick
Family, social justice, and baseball are at the heart of — or, rather, are the heart of — this inspired dystopian tale. I read it in one sitting, unnerved by Jen’s eerily plausible future America, and drawn into the lives of her lovingly rendered characters. Cinematic, prescient, and tender, The Resisters is a triumph. Recommended By Tove H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
"The Resisters is palpably loving, smart, funny, and desperately unsettling. The novel should be required reading for the country both as a cautionary tale and because it is a stone-cold masterpiece. This is Gish Jen's moment. She has pitched a perfect game." Ann Patchett
The time: not so long from now. The place: AutoAmerica. The land: half under water. The Internet: one part artificial intelligence, one part surveillance technology, and oddly human — even funny. The people: Divided. The angel-fair "Netted" have jobs, and literally occupy the high ground. The "Surplus" live on swampland if they're lucky, on water if they're not.
The story: To a Surplus couple — he once a professor, she still a lawyer — is born a Blasian girl with a golden arm. At two, Gwen is hurling her stuffed animals from the crib; by ten, she can hit whatever target she likes. Her teens find her happily playing in an underground baseball league.
When AutoAmerica rejoins the Olympics, though — with a special eye on beating ChinRussia — Gwen attracts interest. Soon she finds herself playing ball with the Netted even as her mother challenges the very foundations of this divided society.
A moving and important story of an America that seems ever more possible, The Resisters is also the story of one family struggling to maintain its humanity and normalcy in circumstances that threaten their every value — as well as their very existence.
Extraordinary and ordinary, charming and electrifying, this is Gish Jen at her most irresistible.
Review
"[A] shrewd and provocative near-future novel...[Jen's] intelligence and control shine through in a chilling portrait of the casual acceptance of totalitarianism." Publishers Weekly
Review
"An absolute joy...I finished The Resisters with a tear in my eye and a smile on my face. Who could ask for a better combo?" Stephen King, author of The Institute
Review
"Inventive, funny, and tender, The Resisters is about family, baseball, and the future — but more than anything, it is about freedom, and it is about us — here, now." Allegra Goodman, author of The Chalk Artist
Review
"Subtle dystopian fiction...beautifully crafted and slyly unsettling...The juxtaposition of America's pastime and the AI-enabled surveillance state Jen presents here is brilliant." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
About the Author
Gish Jen is the author of four previous novels, a story collection, and two works of nonfiction, the latest of which was The Girl at the Baggage Claim: Explaining the East-West Culture Gap. Her honors include the Lannan Literary Award for fiction and the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She teaches from time to time in China, and otherwise lives with her husband and two children in Cambridge, Massachusetts.