The Resisters: A novel

The Resisters: A novel

<b>"<i>The Resisters</i> 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</b><br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>A moving and important story of an America that seems ever more possible, <i>The Resisters</i> 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.<br><br>Extraordinary and ordinary, charming and electrifying, this is Gish Jen at her most irresistible.