Surrender (2020)

From award-winning Spanish author Ray Loriga comes a dystopian novel about authority, manipulation, and the disappearance of privacy that “calls to mind The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood [and] Blindness by José Saramago” (Alfaguara Prize Winner Citation).Ten long years have passed since war first broke out, and one couple still does not know the whereabouts of their children, or what their country is even fighting for. They follow orders and their lives go by simply, routinely, until—one day—a mute boy walks on to their property. When the authorities announce that the area needs to be evacuated and that everyone must relocate to “the transparent city,” the three leave together. At first, the city proves to be a paradise: a stunning glass dome of endless transparent highways, buildings, trains, and markets. Everything its inhabitants need is provided to them—food, protection, a home—and the family quickly, unquestioningly, settles into their new life. But, soon, a sinister underlay begins to emerge. Neither secrets nor walls are permitted here, and strict order, authoritarian calm, and absolute transparency must always reign supreme. In a society in which everything private is public, the most chilling portent of our future emerges. A winner of the prestigious Alfaguara Prize in Spain, Surrender is an urgent novel about dignity and rebellion and the lengths we go to preserve humanity, love, and, ultimately, hope.