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The Unit - Paperback By Holmqvist, Ninni - VERY GOOD
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eBay item number:256482609546
Item specifics
- Condition
- Brand
- Unbranded
- MPN
- Does not apply
- ISBN
- 9781590513132
- Book Title
- Unit
- Item Length
- 8.4in
- Publisher
- Other Press, LLC
- Publication Year
- 2009
- Format
- Trade Paperback
- Language
- English
- Item Height
- 0.8in
- Genre
- Fiction
- Topic
- Psychological, Fantasy / General, Dystopian, Science Fiction / General
- Item Width
- 5.5in
- Item Weight
- 10.6 Oz
- Number of Pages
- 272 Pages
About this product
Product Information
I enjoyed The Unit very much...I know you will be riveted, as I was. --Margaret Atwood on Twitter A modern day classic and a chilling cautionary tale for fans of The Handmaid's Tale . Named a BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH by GQ . "Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood, The Unit is as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable." --Jessica Crispin, NPR.org Ninni Holmqvist's uncanny dystopian novel envisions a society in the not-so-distant future, where women over fifty and men over sixty who are unmarried and childless are sent to a retirement community called the Unit. They're given lavish apartments set amongst beautiful gardens and state-of-the-art facilities; they're fed elaborate gourmet meals, surrounded by others just like them. It's an idyllic place, but there's a catch: the residents--known as dispensables--must donate their organs, one by one, until the final donation. When Dorrit Weger arrives at the Unit, she resigns herself to this fate, seeking only peace in her final days. But she soon falls in love, and this unexpected, improbable happiness throws the future into doubt.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Other Press, LLC
ISBN-10
1590513134
ISBN-13
9781590513132
eBay Product ID (ePID)
70946609
Product Key Features
Book Title
Unit
Format
Trade Paperback
Language
English
Topic
Psychological, Fantasy / General, Dystopian, Science Fiction / General
Publication Year
2009
Genre
Fiction
Number of Pages
272 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
8.4in
Item Height
0.8in
Item Width
5.5in
Item Weight
10.6 Oz
Additional Product Features
Lc Classification Number
Pt9876.18.O3324e5413
Reviews
Booklist Chilling…stunning…Holmqvist's fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans. More Magazine Like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she'll have to sacrifice something essential' like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fateuntil she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules. Kirkus Reviews Pricey shops that require no money. Gardens that trump Monet's. Creature comforts galore. But Swedish ace Holmqvist's English-language debut soon discloses a catch. The shelf-life for inhabitants of this paradise is about six years. This is the Second Reserve Bank Unit, into which the State herds women 50 and up, and men 60 and over, to use for biological material. They're fattened like calves, but there's civic-duty payback: mandatory organ donation, culminating in the final "gift" of their lungs and hearts. Big Brother doesn't take every oldster, just those termed "dispensables": the cash-strapped, underachieving or, worst of all, childless. Dorrit Weger, freelance writer, dog-lover and free sprit, is initially mesmerized by her new surroundings. She feels a sense of community, a closeness never offered by Nils, the inadequate lover who would never leave his wife. And she takes pride in being needed when she's enlisted in one of the Unit's many medical experiments. It's a benign investigation into the effects of exercise, but in the cafeteria and on the lush grounds Dorrit soon notices other campers sleepwalking like zombies or displaying weirdly blotched skin. As her roommates are ushered off one by one to their final donations, she panics into the arms of Johannes, a fellow Unit resident who actually manages to impregnate her. Dazzled by upcoming motherhood, Dorrit is certain her bulging belly will gain her freedom. Proven at last productive, she's bound to be rewarded by the State….isn't she? In her first novel, short-story writer Holmqvist echoes political-science treatises like Hobbes' Leviathan and Rousseau's The Social Contract (gone decidedly mad here), as well as the usual dystopian novels from Brave New World to 1984. Orwellian horrors in a Xanadu on Xanax-creepily profound and most provocative. From the Trade Paperback edition., Named one of the Best Novels of 2009 by the Wall Street Journal Marcela Valdes, The Washington Post “A haunting, deadpan tale set vaguely in the Scandinavian future&Holmqvist’s spare prose interweaves the Unit’s pleasures and cruelties with exquisite matter-of-factness&[Holmqvist] turns the screw, presenting a set of events so miraculous and abominable that they literally made me gasp.� Jessa Crispin, NPR.org “Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood, The Unit is as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable.� The New Yorker “This haunting first novel imagines a nation in which men and women who haven’t had children by a certain age are taken to a “reserve bank unit for biological material� and subjected to various physical and psychological experiments, while waiting to have their organs harvested for “needed� citizens in the outside world& Holmqvist evocatively details the experiences of a woman who falls in love with another resident, and at least momentarily attempts to escape her fate.� Psychiatric Services “Eerie, chilling, yet almost plausible&Holmqvist gives us a lesson in human nature and social engineering through a story that is spare, compelling, and all too human.� TimeOut Chicago “Holmqvist handles her dystopia with muted, subtle care...Neither satirical nor polemical, The Unit manages to express a fair degree of moral outrage without ever moralizing&it has enough spooks to make it a feminist, philosophical page-turner.� Tim Gebhart, Blogcritics.org “ The Unit raises issues of love, gender, freedom, and social mores through the perspective of how we assess an individual's contribution to society&Holmqvist's ability to invest the reader in both the story and the characters is exceptional. It is a book you hesitate to put down. In fact, I consumed it in the space of a couple separate sittings in less than a day&the book is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale . Yet to classify or judge it as a feminist work alone is unfair. It certainly surpasses Kazuo Ishiguro's widely praised Never Let Me Go& Hopefully, the fact this is a translated work and tends to be billed as feminist literature will not adversely affect the book's ability to make it to bookstore shelves. The Unit deserves a wide readership.� Kelly Fitzpatrick , The Orlando Sentinel “This is one of the best books I’ve read over the past two years...Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book you’ll be discussing with others long after you’re done reading it.� Booklist "Chilling&stunning&Holmqvist’s fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans." More Magazine "Like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she’ll have to sacrifice something essential’ like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fate–until she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules." Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind “&Holmqvist’s marvelous book doesn’t browbeat her thesis into the reader and smartly expands her ideas to look, More Magazine Like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she'll have to sacrifice something essential' like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fateuntil she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules. Kirkus Reviews Pricey shops that require no money. Gardens that trump Monet's. Creature comforts galore. But Swedish ace Holmqvist's English-language debut soon discloses a catch. The shelf-life for inhabitants of this paradise is about six years. This is the Second Reserve Bank Unit, into which the State herds women 50 and up, and men 60 and over, to use for biological material. They're fattened like calves, but there's civic-duty payback: mandatory organ donation, culminating in the final "gift" of their lungs and hearts. Big Brother doesn't take every oldster, just those termed "dispensables": the cash-strapped, underachieving or, worst of all, childless. Dorrit Weger, freelance writer, dog-lover and free sprit, is initially mesmerized by her new surroundings. She feels a sense of community, a closeness never offered by Nils, the inadequate lover who would never leave his wife. And she takes pride in being needed when she's enlisted in one of the Unit's many medical experiments. It's a benign investigation into the effects of exercise, but in the cafeteria and on the lush grounds Dorrit soon notices other campers sleepwalking like zombies or displaying weirdly blotched skin. As her roommates are ushered off one by one to their final donations, she panics into the arms of Johannes, a fellow Unit resident who actually manages to impregnate her. Dazzled by upcoming motherhood, Dorrit is certain her bulging belly will gain her freedom. Proven at last productive, she's bound to be rewarded by the State….isn't she? In her first novel, short-story writer Holmqvist echoes political-science treatises like Hobbes' Leviathan and Rousseau's The Social Contract (gone decidedly mad here), as well as the usual dystopian novels from Brave New World to 1984. Orwellian horrors in a Xanadu on Xanax-creepily profound and most provocative., Marcela Valdes,The Washington Post "A haunting, deadpan tale set vaguely in the Scandinavian future…Holmqvist's spare prose interweaves the Unit's pleasures and cruelties with exquisite matter-of-factness…[Holmqvist] turns the screw, presenting a set of events so miraculous and abominable that they literally made me gasp." Jessa Crispin, NPR.org "Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood,The Unitis as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable." TimeOut Chicago "Holmqvist handles her dystopia with muted, subtle care...Neither satirical nor polemical,The Unitmanages to express a fair degree of moral outrage without ever moralizing…it has enough spooks to make it a feminist, philosophical page-turner." Tim Gebhart, Blogcritics.org "The Unitraises issues of love, gender, freedom, and social mores through the perspective of how we assess an individual's contribution to society…Holmqvist's ability to invest the reader in both the story and the characters is exceptional. It is a book you hesitate to put down. In fact, I consumed it in the space of a couple separate sittings in less than a day…the book is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood'sThe Handmaid's Tale. Yet to classify or judge it as a feminist work alone is unfair. It certainly surpasses Kazuo Ishiguro's widely praisedNever Let Me Go…Hopefully, the fact this is a translated work and tends to be billed as feminist literature will not adversely affect the book's ability to make it to bookstore shelves.The Unitdeserves a wide readership." Kelly Fitzpatrick, The Orlando Sentinel "This is one of the best books I've read over the past two years...Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book you'll be discussing with others long after you're done reading it." Booklist "Chilling…stunning…Holmqvist's fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans." More Magazine "Like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she'll have to sacrifice something essential' like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fateuntil she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules." Kirkus Reviews "Pricey shops that require no money. Gardens that trump Monet's. Creature comforts galore. But Swedish ace Holmqvist's English-language debut soon discloses a catch. The shelf-life for inhabitants of this paradise is about six years. This is the Second Reserve Bank Unit, into which the State herds women 50 and up, and men 60 and over, to use for biological material. They're fattened like calves, but there's civic-duty payback: mandatory organ donation, culminating in the final "gift" of their lungs and hearts. Big Brother doesn't take every oldster, just those termed "dispensables": the cash-strapped, underachieving or, worst of all, childless. Dorrit Weger, freelance writer, dog-lover and free sprit, is initially mesmerized by her new surroundings. She feels a sense of community, a closeness never offere, Kelly Fitzpatrick, The Orlando Sentinel "This is one of the best books I've read over the past two years...Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book you'll be discussing with others long after you're done reading it." Booklist "Chilling…stunning…Holmqvist's fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans." More Magazine "Like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she'll have to sacrifice something essential' like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fateuntil she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules." Kirkus Reviews "Pricey shops that require no money. Gardens that trump Monet's. Creature comforts galore. But Swedish ace Holmqvist's English-language debut soon discloses a catch. The shelf-life for inhabitants of this paradise is about six years. This is the Second Reserve Bank Unit, into which the State herds women 50 and up, and men 60 and over, to use for biological material. They're fattened like calves, but there's civic-duty payback: mandatory organ donation, culminating in the final "gift" of their lungs and hearts. Big Brother doesn't take every oldster, just those termed "dispensables": the cash-strapped, underachieving or, worst of all, childless. Dorrit Weger, freelance writer, dog-lover and free sprit, is initially mesmerized by her new surroundings. She feels a sense of community, a closeness never offered by Nils, the inadequate lover who would never leave his wife. And she takes pride in being needed when she's enlisted in one of the Unit's many medical experiments. It's a benign investigation into the effects of exercise, but in the cafeteria and on the lush grounds Dorrit soon notices other campers sleepwalking like zombies or displaying weirdly blotched skin. As her roommates are ushered off one by one to their final donations, she panics into the arms of Johannes, a fellow Unit resident who actually manages to impregnate her. Dazzled by upcoming motherhood, Dorrit is certain her bulging belly will gain her freedom. Proven at last productive, she's bound to be rewarded by the State….isn't she? In her first novel, short-story writer Holmqvist echoes political-science treatises like Hobbes' Leviathan and Rousseau's The Social Contract (gone decidedly mad here), as well as the usual dystopian novels from Brave New World to 1984. Orwellian horrors in a Xanadu on Xanax-creepily profound and most provocative.", Kirkus Reviews Pricey shops that require no money. Gardens that trump Monet's. Creature comforts galore. But Swedish ace Holmqvist's English-language debut soon discloses a catch. The shelf-life for inhabitants of this paradise is about six years. This is the Second Reserve Bank Unit, into which the State herds women 50 and up, and men 60 and over, to use for biological material. They're fattened like calves, but there's civic-duty payback: mandatory organ donation, culminating in the final "gift" of their lungs and hearts. Big Brother doesn't take every oldster, just those termed "dispensables": the cash-strapped, underachieving or, worst of all, childless. Dorrit Weger, freelance writer, dog-lover and free sprit, is initially mesmerized by her new surroundings. She feels a sense of community, a closeness never offered by Nils, the inadequate lover who would never leave his wife. And she takes pride in being needed when she's enlisted in one of the Unit's many medical experiments. It's a benign investigation into the effects of exercise, but in the cafeteria and on the lush grounds Dorrit soon notices other campers sleepwalking like zombies or displaying weirdly blotched skin. As her roommates are ushered off one by one to their final donations, she panics into the arms of Johannes, a fellow Unit resident who actually manages to impregnate her. Dazzled by upcoming motherhood, Dorrit is certain her bulging belly will gain her freedom. Proven at last productive, she's bound to be rewarded by the State….isn't she? In her first novel, short-story writer Holmqvist echoes political-science treatises like Hobbes' Leviathan and Rousseau's The Social Contract (gone decidedly mad here), as well as the usual dystopian novels from Brave New World to 1984. Orwellian horrors in a Xanadu on Xanax-creepily profound and most provocative., Named one of the Best Novels of 2009 by theWall Street Journal Marcela Valdes,The Washington Post "A haunting, deadpan tale set vaguely in the Scandinavian future…Holmqvist's spare prose interweaves the Unit's pleasures and cruelties with exquisite matter-of-factness…[Holmqvist] turns the screw, presenting a set of events so miraculous and abominable that they literally made me gasp." Jessa Crispin, NPR.org "Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood,The Unitis as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable." The New Yorker "This haunting first novel imagines a nation in which men and women who haven't had children by a certain age are taken to a "reserve bank unit for biological material" and subjected to various physical and psychological experiments, while waiting to have their organs harvested for "needed" citizens in the outside world… Holmqvist evocatively details the experiences of a woman who falls in love with another resident, and at least momentarily attempts to escape her fate." Psychiatric Services "Eerie, chilling, yet almost plausible…Holmqvist gives us a lesson in human nature and social engineering through a story that is spare, compelling, and all too human." TimeOut Chicago "Holmqvist handles her dystopia with muted, subtle care...Neither satirical nor polemical,The Unitmanages to express a fair degree of moral outrage without ever moralizing…it has enough spooks to make it a feminist, philosophical page-turner." Tim Gebhart, Blogcritics.org "The Unitraises issues of love, gender, freedom, and social mores through the perspective of how we assess an individual's contribution to society…Holmqvist's ability to invest the reader in both the story and the characters is exceptional. It is a book you hesitate to put down. In fact, I consumed it in the space of a couple separate sittings in less than a day…the book is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood'sThe Handmaid's Tale. Yet to classify or judge it as a feminist work alone is unfair. It certainly surpasses Kazuo Ishiguro's widely praisedNever Let Me Go…Hopefully, the fact this is a translated work and tends to be billed as feminist literature will not adversely affect the book's ability to make it to bookstore shelves.The Unitdeserves a wide readership." Kelly Fitzpatrick, The Orlando Sentinel "This is one of the best books I've read over the past two years...Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book you'll be discussing with others long after you're done reading it." Booklist "Chilling…stunning…Holmqvist's fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans." More Magazine "Like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she'll have to sacrifice something essential' like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fateuntil she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules." Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind "…Holmqvist's marvelous book doesn't browbeat her thesis into the reader and smartly expands her ideas to l, Tim Gebhart, Blogcritics.org "The Unitraises issues of love, gender, freedom, and social mores through the perspective of how we assess an individual's contribution to society…Holmqvist's ability to invest the reader in both the story and the characters is exceptional. It is a book you hesitate to put down. In fact, I consumed it in the space of a couple separate sittings in less than a day…the book is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood'sThe Handmaid's Tale. Yet to classify or judge it as a feminist work alone is unfair. It certainly surpasses Kazuo Ishiguro's widely praisedNever Let Me Go…Hopefully, the fact this is a translated work and tends to be billed as feminist literature will not adversely affect the book's ability to make it to bookstore shelves.The Unitdeserves a wide readership." Kelly Fitzpatrick, The Orlando Sentinel "This is one of the best books I've read over the past two years...Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book you'll be discussing with others long after you're done reading it." Booklist "Chilling…stunning…Holmqvist's fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans." More Magazine "Like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she'll have to sacrifice something essential' like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fateuntil she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules." Kirkus Reviews "Pricey shops that require no money. Gardens that trump Monet's. Creature comforts galore. But Swedish ace Holmqvist's English-language debut soon discloses a catch. The shelf-life for inhabitants of this paradise is about six years. This is the Second Reserve Bank Unit, into which the State herds women 50 and up, and men 60 and over, to use for biological material. They're fattened like calves, but there's civic-duty payback: mandatory organ donation, culminating in the final "gift" of their lungs and hearts. Big Brother doesn't take every oldster, just those termed "dispensables": the cash-strapped, underachieving or, worst of all, childless. Dorrit Weger, freelance writer, dog-lover and free sprit, is initially mesmerized by her new surroundings. She feels a sense of community, a closeness never offered by Nils, the inadequate lover who would never leave his wife. And she takes pride in being needed when she's enlisted in one of the Unit's many medical experiments. It's a benign investigation into the effects of exercise, but in the cafeteria and on the lush grounds Dorrit soon notices other campers sleepwalking like zombies or displaying weirdly blotched skin. As her roommates are ushered off one by one to their final donations, she panics into the arms of Johannes, a fellow Unit resident who actually manages to impregnate her. Dazzled by upcoming motherhood, Dorrit is certain her bulging belly will gain her freedom. Proven at last productive, she's bound to be rewarded by the State….isn't she? In her first novel, short-story writer Holmqvist echoes political-science treatises like Hobbes' Leviathan and Rousseau's The Social Contract (gone, "Holmqvist echoes political-science treatises like Hobbes'Leviathanand Rousseau'sThe Social Contract(gone decidedly mad here), as well as the usual dystopian novels fromBrave New Worldto1984. Orwellian horrors in a Xanadu on Xanaxcreepily profound and most provocative." Kirkus Reviews "[An] exploration of female desire, human need and the purpose of life." Publishers Weekly, Marcela Valdes,The Washington Post "A haunting, deadpan tale set vaguely in the Scandinavian future…Holmqvist's spare prose interweaves the Unit's pleasures and cruelties with exquisite matter-of-factness…[Holmqvist] turns the screw, presenting a set of events so miraculous and abominable that they literally made me gasp." TimeOut Chicago "Holmqvist handles her dystopia with muted, subtle care...Neither satirical nor polemical,The Unitmanages to express a fair degree of moral outrage without ever moralizing…it has enough spooks to make it a feminist, philosophical page-turner." Tim Gebhart, Blogcritics.org "The Unitraises issues of love, gender, freedom, and social mores through the perspective of how we assess an individual's contribution to society…Holmqvist's ability to invest the reader in both the story and the characters is exceptional. It is a book you hesitate to put down. In fact, I consumed it in the space of a couple separate sittings in less than a day…the book is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood'sThe Handmaid's Tale. Yet to classify or judge it as a feminist work alone is unfair. It certainly surpasses Kazuo Ishiguro's widely praisedNever Let Me Go…Hopefully, the fact this is a translated work and tends to be billed as feminist literature will not adversely affect the book's ability to make it to bookstore shelves.The Unitdeserves a wide readership." Kelly Fitzpatrick, The Orlando Sentinel "This is one of the best books I've read over the past two years...Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book you'll be discussing with others long after you're done reading it." Booklist "Chilling…stunning…Holmqvist's fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans." More Magazine "Like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she'll have to sacrifice something essential' like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fateuntil she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules." Kirkus Reviews "Pricey shops that require no money. Gardens that trump Monet's. Creature comforts galore. But Swedish ace Holmqvist's English-language debut soon discloses a catch. The shelf-life for inhabitants of this paradise is about six years. This is the Second Reserve Bank Unit, into which the State herds women 50 and up, and men 60 and over, to use for biological material. They're fattened like calves, but there's civic-duty payback: mandatory organ donation, culminating in the final "gift" of their lungs and hearts. Big Brother doesn't take every oldster, just those termed "dispensables": the cash-strapped, underachieving or, worst of all, childless. Dorrit Weger, freelance writer, dog-lover and free sprit, is initially mesmerized by her new surroundings. She feels a sense of community, a closeness never offered by Nils, the inadequate lover who would never leave his wife. And she takes pride in being needed when she's enlisted in one of the Unit's many medical experiments. It̵, Marcela Valdes,The Washington Post "A haunting, deadpan tale set vaguely in the Scandinavian future…Holmqvist's spare prose interweaves the Unit's pleasures and cruelties with exquisite matter-of-factness…[Holmqvist] turns the screw, presenting a set of events so miraculous and abominable that they literally made me gasp." Jessa Crispin, NPR.org "Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood,The Unitis as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable." The New Yorker "This haunting first novel imagines a nation in which men and women who haven't had children by a certain age are taken to a "reserve bank unit for biological material" and subjected to various physical and psychological experiments, while waiting to have their organs harvested for "needed" citizens in the outside world… Holmqvist evocatively details the experiences of a woman who falls in love with another resident, and at least momentarily attempts to escape her fate." TimeOut Chicago "Holmqvist handles her dystopia with muted, subtle care...Neither satirical nor polemical,The Unitmanages to express a fair degree of moral outrage without ever moralizing…it has enough spooks to make it a feminist, philosophical page-turner." Tim Gebhart, Blogcritics.org "The Unitraises issues of love, gender, freedom, and social mores through the perspective of how we assess an individual's contribution to society…Holmqvist's ability to invest the reader in both the story and the characters is exceptional. It is a book you hesitate to put down. In fact, I consumed it in the space of a couple separate sittings in less than a day…the book is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood'sThe Handmaid's Tale. Yet to classify or judge it as a feminist work alone is unfair. It certainly surpasses Kazuo Ishiguro's widely praisedNever Let Me Go…Hopefully, the fact this is a translated work and tends to be billed as feminist literature will not adversely affect the book's ability to make it to bookstore shelves.The Unitdeserves a wide readership." Kelly Fitzpatrick, The Orlando Sentinel "This is one of the best books I've read over the past two years...Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book you'll be discussing with others long after you're done reading it." Booklist "Chilling…stunning…Holmqvist's fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans." More Magazine "Like Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she'll have to sacrifice something essential' like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fateuntil she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules." Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind "…Holmqvist's marvelous book doesn't browbeat her thesis into the reader and smartly expands her ideas to look at the plight of all marginalized folk, women and men alike, and how the promise of comforts can be the most horrifying of all. Prepare to be dist
Copyright Date
2009
Target Audience
Trade
Lccn
2008-046294
Dewey Decimal
839.73/8
Dewey Edition
22
Item description from the seller
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:256482609546
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| After receiving the item, contact seller within | Refund will be given as | Return shipping |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days | Money Back | Seller pays for return shipping |
Refer to eBay Return policyopens in a new tab or window for more details. You are covered by the eBay Money Back Guaranteeopens in a new tab or window if you receive an item that is not as described in the listing.
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Seller feedback (5,857,710)
z***z (601)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past month
Verified purchase
🏆 SUPER STAR 🤩 AMAZING PHOTOS 🎯 ACCURATE DESCRIPTION ✏️ GENUINE PRODUCTS 💎 HIGH QUALITY 🍯 SUPER PRICES 💰 EASY TO WORK WITH 🍰 ECONOMY HANDLING ⏱️ FAST SHIPPING 🚀 BUBBLE PACKAGE 📦 ARRIVED WITHIN DAYS 🌎 EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNICATION 🎙️ OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER SERVICE 🛎️ GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR 🍿 TOTAL ASSET TO THE EBAY-ECO SYSTEM 🥇 SAVED SELLER 🎱 PROMT REPLY FOR RETURNS 🎯 WOULD BUY FROM AGAIN 🧲 UNDER PROMISES OVER DELIVERS ⛳️ MADE ME VERY HAPPY 🌈 LEFT POSITIVE FEEDBACK 🌼 THANK YOU! 😇 A+++
n***e (401)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
Verified purchase
This item didn’t come in exactly as pictured, but the seller responded immediately and was very gracious in offering me a partial refund even bough I wasn’t expecting one for what I paid for the item. I have bought from this seller before, and they are reputable and stand behind the products they sell. My other transactions with them have been perfect. Great communication. Packaging and price were good. Fairly fast shipping, too. Thanks.
e***r (2641)- Feedback left by buyer.
Past 6 months
Verified purchase
This item came in exactly as pictured, and the seller posted immediately and was very gracious. I didn't ask for a partial refund. Why would I? I bought what I was expecting and received what I paid for the item. Not sure if I have bought from this seller before, but they are reputable and stand behind the products they sell. My future transactions with them will no doubt be perfect. Great communication. Packaging and price were good. Fairly fast shipping, too. Thanks.
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