The Unit

(Paperback)

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Description

Single, childless, fifty and deemed economically worthless, Dorrit leaves behind her married lover, her beloved dog and her ramshackle house and joins the residents of the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material, resigned to making her contribution to society by giving herself, organ by organ, to the 'necessary' population outside the Unit. Despite constant surveillance and the regular disappearance of inmates making their 'final donation', Dorrit and her new friends eat well, sleep well, keep fit, play hard and even make love, their fears deadened by the luxury of their surroundings, their new-found companionship, the atmosphere of calm, their freedom from financial worries. Is it possible that against all the odds, real happiness can exist in the Unit When something truly extraordinary happens to Dorrit, highlighting the grotesque reality of her situation, she faces the hardest decision of her life. Will she exchange one nightmare for another

Reviews

A haunting, deadpan tale set vaguely in the Scandinavian future Holmqvists spare prose interweaves the Units pleasures and cruelties with exquisite matter-of-factness... Readers actually begin to wonderis life better as a pampered lab bunny or as a lonely indigent But then [Holmqvist] turns the screw, presenting a set of events so miraculous and abominable that they literally made me gasp.

* Washington Post *

I likedThe Unitvery much... I know you will be riveted, as I was.

* Margaret Atwood *

The message is bold if not on the nose: If you dont fall into a classic nuclear family, then your value as a human are the spare parts you can give those who do contribute to traditional family structures. The books main character, a writer named Dorrit, is forced to think about the meaning of her life. Shed had a lover, but he wouldnt leave his wife; shed birthed art, but never a child. Holmqvists writing is clear and precisethe clinical tone contributes to theThe Units eeriness. The Unit itself is a place of luxury amenities include a library, a cafe, immaculately manicured gardens but it feels as much like home to Dorrit as the promotional photos of an upscale condo. Holmqvists is a book of quiet cruelty, and perhaps the most harrowing twist of all is that the world outside the walls of the Unit one with married couples, one with children seems even worse. In that way,The Units strength is uncovering beauty in bleakness.

* GQ *

This haunting first novel imagines a nation in which men and women who havent 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.

* The New Yorker *

Clinical and haunting, The Unit is a modern-day classic and a spine-chilling cautionary tale about the value of human life.

* Waterstones *

Holmqvist paces her revelations superbly and the reader is gripped by the atmosphere of slowly mounting claustrophobia.

* New Internationalist *

Holmqvist handles her dystopia with muted, subtle care Neither satirical nor polemical, The Unitmanages to express a fair degree of moral outrage without ever moralizingit has enough spooks to make it a feminist, philosophical page-turner.

* Time Out Chicago *

This dystopian world is described with such exquisite balance between its luxuries and cruelties that the reader is emotionally drawn in and made to face up to often uncomfortable and challenging ethical dilemmas. I cannot recommend this novel, nor signal Holmqvists evident talent as an author strongly enough; it is an excellent book.

* What's On UK *

Ninni HolmqvistsThe Unitoffers a shrewd, timely exploration of gender The novel has been compared toThe Handmaids Tale, but where Margaret Atwoods classic focuses on procreation, Holmqvists novel feels broader, holding both capitalism and traditional gender roles under a harsh light. Dorrit is honest about her life, and she wonders whether the freedom she had in her youth was worth the price she pays now. Any woman young or old will relate to her plight.

* Washington Post *

[A] chilling, stunning debut novel Holmqvists 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.

* Booklist *

Orwellian horrors in a Xanadu on Xanax creepily profound and most provocative.

* Kirkus *

An exploration of female desire, human need, and the purpose of life.

* Publishers Weekly *

I found this one riveting from start to finish. It could happily find a place on school reading lists alongside Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Chilling, humorous, poignant, thought-provoking, and immensely readable, this is perfect reading-group material which cannot fail to provoke discussion.

* New Books *

Beautifully haunting This is one of the best books Ive read over the past two years Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book youll be discussing with others long after youre done reading it.

* Orlando Sentinel *

Savagely dystopianremarkably deft.

* Barnes and Noble Review *

Ninni Holmqvists bookThe Unit, newly reissued, imagines a world in which people who havent procreated are forced to make a different ultimate contribution to society... The Unit feels like an inversion of Margaret Atwoods Gilead, where fertile women are forcibly impregnated under biblical sanction. Here, the justification for horror the extraction of human tissue from the childfree is secular, a capitalist democracy demanding its toll... The Unit contains elements that echo a number of different speculative and dystopian works. The domed environment and omnipresent cameras seem to predict Suzanne Collinss Hunger Games trilogy; the prospect of forcible organ donation brings to mind Kazuo Ishiguros Never Let Me Go... Holmqvists intention isnt realism its to unravel and critique assumptions about the meaning of life. Is it criminal, she wonders, to live a quiet life dedicated only to self-actualization Do artists who never achieve greatness have value Does every citizen have a responsibility to contribute to their society In exploring such questions, Holmqvist takes liberal assumptions about Scandinavian paternalism versus American individualism and flips them upside down... Holmqvists writing is spare in style, elegantly succinct, but the layers of the world shes created are manifold. Other dystopian stories like The Handmaids Tale might seem particularly chilling in a moment when democracy feels like its under threat, but The Unit is haunting in its assertion that democracy itself isnt enough. The tyranny of popular sentiment can be just as dangerous, Holmqvist argues, presenting scene after scene of intelligent, compassionate citizens indoctrinated into doubting their own worth.

* TheAtlantic.com *

Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood, The Unit is as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable.

* NPR *

A remarkably thought-provoking novel.

* Reading Matters *

This Swedish novel imagines a dystopian future for the childless in which literally offering pieces of yourself is a legitimate contribution to society Not only is it an intimate portrait of creative, single individuals coming to terms with a graphic and imminent death, but their apparent willingness to accept it for the good of others... This begs the question: what does it mean to be a good citizen To whom are we ultimately responsible How do we, as well as our society, measure worth What is the value of one life or the cost of another

* Buzz Magazines *

The Unitraises issues of love, gender, freedom, and social mores through the perspective of how we assess an individuals contribution to society Holmqvists ability to invest the reader in both the story and the characters is exceptional. It is a book you hesitate to put downThe Unitdeserves a wide readership.

* Blogcritics.org *

For a debut novel I thought it was stunning.

* Bookbag *

Margaret Atwood has a line on the cover, and no surprise this dystopian tale of childless men and women relocated in middle age toa reserve bank unit for biological material rivalsThe Handmaids Talefor a weirdly believable future in which the childless support families with children giving up parts of their bodies until, at last, they make theirfinal donation and disappear altogether. The reasonableness of this system feels very Scandinavian, certainly very Canadian... Holmqvist has written the sci-fi novel of our narcissistic era, when many people choose to focus on themselves and their art (Dorrit, the heroine of this novel, is a literary fiction writer) or their career over marriage and family. Not being needed by others is a boon when one is young but a death sentence for the middle aged.

* Hudson Review *

Like Atwoods The Handmaids 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 shell have to sacrifice something essential like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fate until she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules.

* More Magazine *

The Unit rattled me in a way few dystopian novels have Its a story that will stick with me.

* shelflove.wordpress.com *

Holmqvist gives us a lesson in human nature and social engineering through a story that is spare, compelling, and all too human.

* Psychiatric Services *

The power of The Unit is its subtlety. Highly recommended.

* Readmorebooks.wordpress.com *

Compelling, chilling in spots, and at times heartbreaking.

* Flashlight Worthy *

Author Bio

Ninni Holmqvist lives in Skane, Sweden. She is the author of three short-story collections, including Kostym (Suit), and two novels. She also works as a translator.