Doppelganger
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4.3 • 26 Ratings
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
Brought to you by Penguin.
What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired a double? Someone almost like you, and yet not you at all?
When Naomi Klein discovered that a woman who shared her first name, but had radically different, harmful views, was getting chronically mistaken for her, it seemed too ridiculous to take seriously. Then suddenly it wasn't. She started to find herself grappling with a distorted sense of reality, becoming obsessed with reading the threats on social media, the endlessly scrolling insults from the followers of her doppelganger. Why had her shadowy other gone down such an extreme path? Why was identity - all we have to meet the world - so unstable?
To find out, Klein decided to follow her double into a bizarre, uncanny mirror world: one of conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers and demagogue hucksters, where soft-focus wellness influencers make common cause with fire-breathing far right propagandists (all in the name of protecting 'the children'). In doing so, she lifts the lid on our own culture during this surreal moment in history, as we turn ourselves into polished virtual brands, publicly shame our enemies, watch as deep fakes proliferate and whole nations flip from democracy to something far more sinister.
This is a book for our age and for all of us; a deadly serious dark comedy which invites us to view our reflections in the looking glass. It's for anyone who has lost hours down an internet rabbit hole, who wonders why our politics has become so fatally warped, and who wants a way out of our collective vertigo and back to fighting for what really matters.
©2023 Naomi Klein (P)2023 Penguin Audio
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
What begins as an effort to understand the bewildering journey taken by erstwhile feminist, Naomi Wolf’s “doppelgänger”, soon turns into an examination of conspiracy theories and a surprisingly empathetic meditation on the appeal of "antireality", or what Klein calls the Mirror World. Making sense of all the madness and distortion in this Mirror World is no easy task, and with honest self-reflection Klein also argues that none of us is immune to its allure. It’s a typically wide-ranging work, and as such, some of the dots may not fully join up for every reader. But where her analysis has undeniable force is in her profound desire for a renewed sense of purpose and connection in a world still reeling from the COVID fallout. Crucially, she urges us to remember that now is still a moment of intense crisis. We may be trying to forget COVID, but we cannot forget the scale of the climate disaster that looms over us. Connect now, act now, Klein tells us, because very soon it will be too late. The flight from reality is all too understandable, but it is a luxury we simply cannot afford.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant
Incredible writing from a mastermind of clarifying nuance.
A must read for anyone in 2023.
This is an extraordinary book. I read a physical copy and then listened to the audiobook and now have an even deeper appreciation, and in some ways fear, of the Mirror World and the impact it’s having on our world.
The book touches on so many issues from Covid denialism to autism and vaccines to the emergence of ‘diagonalism’ as a political reality (or lack thereof).
For anyone wishing to understand the world in 2023 and how to wrangle with those who seem disconnected from reality, this is the book to read.
Hmm
Didn’t listen to much of it but it was fine I’m only 8 so understandable