Julia
A Novel
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A PEOPLE Magazine Must-Read Book for Fall 2023 | An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2023 | A Guardian Biggest New Book of 2023 | A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2023
An imaginative, feminist, and brilliantly relevant-to-today retelling of Orwell’s 1984, from the point of view of Winston Smith’s lover, Julia, by critically acclaimed novelist Sandra Newman.
Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It’s 1984, and Britain (now called Airstrip One) has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. In this gripping work of feminist fiction, Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and is ruled by an ultra-totalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, everything about this world is as it is in Orwell’s 1984.
All her life, Julia has known only Oceania, and, until she meets Winston Smith, she has never imagined anything else. She is an ideal citizen in this dystopian society: cheerfully cynical, always ready with a bribe, piously repeating every political slogan while believing in nothing. She routinely breaks the rules, but also collaborates with the regime when necessary. Everyone likes Julia.
Then one day she finds herself walking toward Winston Smith in a corridor and impulsively slips him a note, setting in motion the devastating, unforgettable events of the classic story. Julia takes us on a surprising journey through Orwell’s now-iconic dystopia, with twists that reveal unexpected sides not only to Julia, but to other familiar figures in the 1984 universe. This unique perspective on a forbidden love under totalitarian rule lays bare our own world in haunting and provocative ways, just as the original did almost seventy-five years ago.
This masterful retelling reimagines the classic novel as a story of female resilience, cynical survival, and daring rebellion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Newman (The Men) delivers a provocative feminist retelling of George Orwell's 1984 from the perspective of Julia Worthing, a mechanic working on the machines in the Ministry of Truth's Fiction Department, where she's become a master at subverting surveillance. As a result, Julia enjoys a healthy clandestine sex life and averts the ever-present threat of the ironically named Ministry of Love's "eyeless mice gnawing at her in the dark." She soon becomes fascinated by Records Department colleague and fellow apostate Winston Smith, whom she dubs "old Misery." Unlike Orwell's Julia, Newman's is dominant and fastidious. Still, Newman stays true to Orwell's dystopian details as she places Julia at the center of 1984's plot points, such as having her feign allegiance and alliance to Big Brother and avoid even the suggestion of malfeasance and the horrors of Room 101 at all costs, until she can't. Julia's narrative voice is refreshingly fearless as she navigates her way around the Party's nefarious thought policing, and a wicked plot twist spins the original narrative on its ear. Newman adds a fresh coat of menacing gray to Orwell's gloomy world.
