Goliath

 By: Tochi Onyebuchi 

Location: FIC ONY

Genre:  Sci Fi, Dystopia

Goliath is an outstanding example of literary science fiction with the ability to interrogate the pressing fears of the day- from climate change and race wars to disease, gentrification, technological advancement, class division, and more. It contains a non-linear story structure and is told in an elevated style of prose that readers might find challenging, but I promise it is well worth the effort. This novel manages to be both experimental and fiercely relevant to the human experience. Bethany

"In this ambitious novel, dense with perspectives and social commentary, Onyebuchi dreams up disparate lives in a crumbling future America—with gentrifiers returning to Earth from space colonies and laborers trying to make a precarious living—while leaving room for moments of beauty and humor."—The New York Times, Editors' Choice

In his adult novel debut, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Award finalist and ALA Alex and New England Book Award winner Tochi Onyebuchi delivers a sweeping science fiction epic in the vein of Samuel R. Delany and Station Eleven.

In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighborhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked.

A primal biblical epic flung into the future, Goliath weaves together disparate narratives—a space-dweller looking at New Haven, Connecticut as a chance to reconnect with his spiraling lover; a group of laborers attempting to renew the promises of Earth’s crumbling cities; a journalist attempting to capture the violence of the streets; a marshal trying to solve a kidnapping—into a richly urgent mosaic about race, class, gentrification, and who is allowed to be the hero of any history.

Brilliant, imaginative, provocative, and, at times, terrifying. Goliath takes us to disturbingly plausible dystopian future, through the perspectives of the many denizens who call it home.