They (Faber Editions)
The Lost Dystopian 'Masterpiece' (Emily St. John Mandel)
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3.3 • 4 Ratings
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- £6.49
Publisher Description
For fans of I Who Have Never Known Men, a 'creepily prescient' (Margaret Atwood) lost dystopian 'masterpiece' (Emily St. John Mandel): in a nightmarish Britain, THEY are coming closer.
'Ceepy, tense and strange.' Ian Rankin 'Delicious and sexy and downright chilling ... Read it!' Rumaan Alam 'The signature of an enchantress.' Edna O'Brien 'I'm pretty wild about this paranoid, terrifying 1977 masterpiece.' Lauren Groff 'Completely got under my skin.' Kiran Millwood Hargrave 'Lush, hypnotic, compulsive.' Eimear McBride 'A masterwork of English pastoral horror.' Claire-Louise Bennett 'A short shocker.' Andrew Hunter Murray
This is Britain: but not as we know it.
THEY begin with a dead dog, shadowy footsteps, confiscated books. Soon the National Gallery is purged; eerie towers survey the coast; mobs stalk the countryside destroying artworks - and those who resist.
THEY capture dissidents - writers, painters, musicians, even the unmarried and childless - in military sweeps, 'curing' these subversives of individual identity.
Survivors gather together as cultural refugees, preserving their crafts, creating, loving and remembering. But THEY make it easier to forget ...
Lost for half a century, newly introduced by Carmen Maria Machado, Kay Dick's They (1977) is a rediscovered dystopian masterpiece of art under attack: a cry from the soul against censorship, a radical celebration of non-conformity - and a warning.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harsh punishments await anyone bucking society's norms in this eerie, atmospheric story from English writer Dick (1915–2001) first published in 1977 (before The Two Faces of Robert Just, as Jeremy Scott). The unnamed, ungendered narrator is a writer living on the English coast who spends their time visiting other writers and artists. Meanwhile, a group known only as "they" are bent on destroying art and literature and on punishing artists. The anonymous band lurks in the countryside, pilfering books and artworks, and punishing those who refuse to give up their creative enterprises. When a writer refuses to burn her manuscript, the group severely burns her writing hand. But the attacks are also haphazard and often leave people unscathed, creating uncertainty as artists continue about their business. The narrator, meanwhile, rejects encouragement to give up living alone ("They fear solitary living, therefore envy it," a friend says), even as "they" become more aggressive. The faceless nature of the antagonists—whose philosophy, goals, and power structures are unspoken—runs counter to other mid-century dystopian tales and leaves space for interpretation. In place of plot, Dick creates a pervasive sense of dread for those who give their lives to art. This unsettling dreamlike endeavor is a worthy rediscovery.
Customer Reviews
Something special
They is an unexpected pleasure for fans of rural horror, the uncanny and dystopian fiction. Connected stories about artists living in the shadow of a fascistic They who are anti-art, anti-freedom, anti-love. Rediscovered years after its initial publication, this is a real reading pleasure.