Factory 19

Description

In the spirit of George Orwell's Animal Farm comes a darkly funny satire on technology, the gig economy and the smartphone - and what would happen if we re-created a world without them. In the spirit of George Orwell's Animal Farm comes a darkly funny satire on technology, the gig economy and the smartphone - and what would happen if we re-created a world without them. We're told that the future will be brighter. But what if human happiness really lies in the past? Hobart, 2022- a city with declining population, in the grip of a dark recession. A rusty ship sails into the harbour and begins to unload its cargo on the site of the once famous but now abandoned Gallery of Future Art, known to the world as GoFA. One day the city's residents are awoken by a high-pitched sound no one has heard for two generations - a factory whistle. GoFA's owner, world-famous tycoon Dundas Faussett, is creating his most ambitious installation yet. He's going to defeat the internet's dominance over our lives by establishing a new Year Zero- 1948. Those whose jobs and lives have been destroyed by Amazon and Uber and Airbnb are invited to fight back in the only way that can possibly succeed- by living as if the internet and the smartphone had never been invented. The hold over our lives by Gates, Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg and their ilk starts to loosen as the revolutionary example of Factory 19 spreads. Can nostalgia really defeat the future? Can the little people win back the world? We are about to find out.

Dennis Glover was educated at Monash and Cambridge universities and he has made a career as one of Australia's leading speechwriters and political commentators. His first novel, The Last Man in Europe, was published around the world in multiple editions and was nominated for several literary prizes, including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. His second novel, Factory 19, was published in 2020, and his newest novel, Thaw, is forthcoming.