The Wall
A Novel
5 March 2019
Territory Rights — Worldwide including Singapore and Malaysia, but excluding the British Commonwealth.
Description
An NPR "Favorite Books of the Year" and Financial Times "Best Fiction of the Year" selection.
The best-selling author of The Debt to Pleasure and Capital returns with a chilling fable for our time.
Ravaged by the Change, an island nation in a time very like our own has built the Wall—an enormous concrete barrier around its entire coastline. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls who are trapped amid the rising seas outside and are a constant threat. Failure will result in death or a fate perhaps worse: being put to sea and made an Other himself. Beset by cold, loneliness, and fear, Kavanagh tries to fulfill his duties to his demanding Captain and Sergeant, even as he grows closer to his fellow Defenders. A dark part of him wonders whether it would be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if he had to fight for his life…
John Lanchester—acclaimed as "an elegant and wonderfully witty writer" (New York Times) and "a writer of rare intelligence" (Los Angeles Times)—has written a taut, hypnotic novel of a broken world and what might be found when all is lost. The Wall blends the most compelling issues of our time—rising waters, rising fear, rising political division—into a suspenseful story of love, trust, and survival.
Reviews
"Lanchester’s novel…elegantly and chillingly imagines how current political attitudes might play out as the repercussions of climate change grow more severe." — New York Times
"Gripping…Full of tense action and sudden reversals…Few readers will stop until they reach its final page." — Alec Nevala-Lee, New York Times Book Review
"Thrilling…A topical and deftly satirical novel." — Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal
"As in all good dystopian fiction, Lanchester shows us a world that could become a reality…[He] maintains measured, elegant prose–creating an assuredly human dystopian novel." — Lucas Wittmann, TIME
"[A] taut tale…It’s not clear what it will take to finally convince us that it’s time to panic about climate change, but works of fiction such as The Wall have an important role to play." — Stephen Dyson, Washington Post
"Bold and confident fiction that highlights the current American and British issues of Trumpism and Brexit. " — Los Angeles Times
"A chilling reminder of the ease with which myopia can turn to dystopia." — Michael Magras, Houston Chronicle
"Chillingly real." — Boris Kachka, New York magazine
"An utterly persuasive story set in a dystopic future. Unputdownable. It's 1984 for our times." — Michael Lewis
"In The Wall, John Lanchester takes our current political climate to its terrible and logical extreme. A harrowing, brilliant, and troublingly plausible vision of the future." — Emily St. John Mandel
"The Wall is something new: almost an allegory, almost a dystopian-future warning, partly an elegant study of the nature of storytelling itself. I was hugely impressed by it." — Philip Pullman
Awards
Longlisted — Booker Prize, 2019
Also By: John Lanchester 
Reality and Other Stories
Paperback, 2022
A Kirkus Reviews Best Short Fiction of 2021 Selection
Ghost stories for the digital age by the Booker Prize–longlisted author of The Wall.
Reality and Other Stories
E Book, 2021
A Kirkus Reviews Best Short Fiction of 2021 Selection
Ghost stories for the digital age by the Booker Prize–longlisted author of The Wall.
How to Speak Money: What the Money People Say—And What It Really Means
Hardback, 2014
An entertaining and indispensable guide to the language of finance and economics by the writer hailed for “explain[ing] complex stuff in a down-to-earth and witty style” (The Economist).
How to Speak Money: What the Money People Say—And What It Really Means
E Book, 2014
"Refreshingly clear, sharp, and funny, How to Speak Money will help you understand not only what the language of finance means but also why it matters." —James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of...
