Dreamland: An Evening Standard 'Best New Book' of 2021

Description

Chance is born four years from now, in a London close to home - where social divides are deepening, and climate change is playing its hand. Chance, her mother and brother are moved from cramped hotel room to cramped hotel room in emergency accommodation. Until a right-wing foundation funding 're-locations' gives the family a cash grant to move out of London, to the seaside town of Margate. Margate - famous for Turner sunsets and rollercoaster-ish highs and lows - has changed. The down-from-Londoners have moved back to the city, sun-curled For Sale signs litter the streets, hotels are empty. And the sea is higher. It's higher everywhere. As London distances itself from the rest of the country, Chance builds a home in Margate - navigating a turbulent relationship with her mother's new boyfriend Kole, looking after her new baby brother Blue, and breaking into abandoned houses with her best friend Davey. Chance is about to meet a girl who couldn't be more different to her - and she's about to fall in love in a way that will change her world, and her understanding of the world around her, forever. Taking place over the next 20 years, Dreamland is a unique post-Brexit Brit-stopia - a state of the nation novel which paints a recognisable and all-too-believable close future of Britain based on social policies already in play. Set against a backdrop of rising populism, austerity and a creeping mainstreaming of social engineering and eugenics, Dreamland is a story of love, loss, friendship, adventure, and, against all odds, hope.