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The City Where We Once Lived
The City Where We Once Lived: A Novel | Eric Barnes
9 posts | 6 read | 28 to read
In a near future where climate change has severely affected weather and agriculture, the North End of an unnamed city has long been abandoned in favor of the neighboring South End. Aside from the scavengers steadily stripping the empty city to its bones, only a few thousand people remain, content to live quietly among the crumbling metropolis. Many, like the narrator, are there to try to escape the demons of their past. He spends his time observing and recording the decay around him, attempting to bury memories of what he has lost. But it eventually becomes clear that things are unraveling elsewhere as well, as strangers, violent and desperate alike, begin to appear in the North End, spreading word of social and political deterioration in the South End and beyond. Faced with a growing disruption to his isolated life, the narrator discovers within himself a surprising need to resist losing the home he has created in this empty place. He and the rest of the citizens of the North End must choose whether to face outsiders as invaders or welcome them as neighbors. The City Where We Once Lived is a haunting novel of the near future that combines a prescient look at how climate change and industrial flight will shape our world with a deeply personal story of one man running from his past. With glowing prose, Eric Barnes brings into sharp focus questions of how we come to call a place home and what is our capacity for violence when that home becomes threatened.
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bookandbedandtea
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Pickpick

An unnamed protagonist introduces us to a small group of unnamed people living in an unnamed city devastated by climate change. The writing is vivid while the story is bleak and unnerving yet a little bit hopeful.
(Background: a yawning Bailey and a bunch of my grandbaby's Halloween decorations 😁)
This was my #DoubleSpin for October @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Great progress!!! 2y
23 likes1 comment
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Mitch
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Pickpick

Climate disaster, industrial pollution, humanity exercising violence, whilst this near future novel is not brimming with positivity there‘s a sense of hope in community, a sense of future in working together. This unnamed city, with its unnamed cast of characters are universal representations of pockets of our world, multiplying as we speak. It's incredibly visual - & the voice of the narrator is deeply effecting. A bleak - but well crafted read!

Come-read-with-me Can hardly wait to start it! It‘s in my May pile! 4y
Mitch @Come-read-with-me It was really good - very broody! 4y
95 likes9 stack adds2 comments
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Mitch
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Just started this today - really enjoying the setting. It‘s very ‘Gilead-like‘ 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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Mitch
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🙌🏼🙌🏼Puppy is having an unexpected second sleep this morning so I‘m going with the flow and diving into a new book 🙌🏼🙌🏼. Can‘t wait to start @Come-read-with-me

wanderinglynn Sounds like an interesting book. 4y
Come-read-with-me Thanks to you it‘s now on my TBR! 4y
90 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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IamIamIam
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Pickpick

A city lies in ruins after decades of neglect, yet people flock there for solitude in a dying world. Rain and flooding due to severe climate change have left the North End disconnected from the remaining South End. As much a story about human nature as climate change, I was taken aback by this haunting slow paced book with anonymous characters that could be anyone we know. Beautifully written!

Reggie This sounds good. Stacked! 4y
IamIamIam @Reggie I can't wait to see what you think!!! 😁 4y
30 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Twocougs
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Pickpick

Why had I not heard about this book before? Wow, beautifully written, so human, so thought provoking. Wonderfully creative.

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IamIamIam
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Drum lessons with this hard hitting, quietly powerful paragraph. It seems that money is scarce so rather than build up areas of the city in need, people are encouraged to simply move on. I like a postapocalyptic story without zombies. Scary, though... real scary... ☠

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thewellreadpug
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Meet George – my new reading buddy 🐾📚

https://instagram.com/the.mid.mod.pugs

phantomx He's so cute 😍 5y
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Avanders
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https://bookriot.com/2018/10/19/post-apocalyptic-books-2018?utm_source=Sailthru&...

Which also reminds me... #SFMBC'ers, your next ship date is in 10 days!!

jillannjohn I read this today too! 6y
Avanders @jillannjohn nice! 🤗 6y
MommyOfTwo Mine has been sent and received 6y
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ReadingRover Ooooh I have to read this! 6y
Avanders @MommyOfTwo great! 👏🏽👏🏽 @ReadingRover I'm a little worried about my TBR though... 😳😜 6y
ReadingRover @Avanders I will never finish my tbr. It‘s never ending!!! 6y
Avanders @ReadingRover lol same here 😁😁 6y
70 likes7 comments