"a fascinating reflection on totalitarianism as refracted through Orwell's times and our own"
The Guardian London chief city of Airstrip One the third most populous province of Oceania.
It's 1984 and Julia Worthing works as a mechanic fixing the novel-writing machines in the
Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. Under the ideology of IngSoc and the rule of the
Party and its leader Big Brother Julia is a model citizen - cheerfully cynical believing in
nothing and caring not at all about politics. She knows how to survive in a world of constant
surveillance Thought Police Newspeak Doublethink child spies and the black markets of the
prole neighbourhoods. She's very good at staying alive. But Julia becomes intrigued by a
colleague from the Records Department - a mid-level worker of the Outer Party called Winston
Smith she comes to realise that she's losing her grip and can no longer safely navigate her
world. Seventy-five years after Orwell finished writing his iconic novel Sandra Newman has
tackled the world of Big Brother in a truly convincing way offering a dramatically different
feminist narrative that is true to and stands alongside the original. For the millions of
readers who have been brought up with Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four here finally is a
provocative vital and utterly satisfying companion novel.
