This Great Hemisphere
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jul 9, 2024
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- $14.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"This Great Hemisphere is an inventive and immersive epic that follows its brave invisible protagonist as she navigates a futuristic new world that often mirrors our own. A thrilling page-turner." —Brit Bennett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Half
From the award-winning and bestselling author of Black Buck: A speculative novel about a young woman—invisible by birth and relegated to second-class citizenship—who sets off on a mission to find her older brother, whom she had presumed dead but who is now the primary suspect in a high-profile political murder.
Despite the odds, Sweetmint, a young invisible woman, has done everything right her entire life—school, university, and now a highly sought-after apprenticeship with the Northwestern Hemisphere’s premier inventor, a non-invisible man belonging to the Dominant Population who is as eccentric as he is enigmatic. But the world she has fought so hard to build after the disappearance of her older brother comes crashing down when authorities claim that not only is he well and alive, he’s also the main suspect in the murder of the Chief Executive of the Northwestern Hemisphere.
A manhunt ensues, and Sweetmint, armed with courage, intellect, and unwavering love for her brother, sets off on a mission to find him before it’s too late. With five days until the hemisphere’s big election, Sweetmint must dodge a relentless law officer who’s determined to maintain order and an ambitious politician with sights set on becoming the next Chief Executive by any means necessary.
With the captivating worldbuilding of N. K. Jemisin’s novels and blazing defiance of Naomi Alderman’s work, This Great Hemisphere is a novel that brilliantly illustrates the degree to which reality can be shaped by non-truths and vicious manipulations, while shining a light on our ability to surprise ourselves when we stop giving in to the narratives others have written for us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this ambitious sophomore novel, Askaripour (Black Buck) casts a young woman as a sorcerer's apprentice in a dastardly scheme to "reset" the world. In 2529, Sweetmint is the first Invisible to work for the Northwestern Hemisphere's Chief Architect, Tenmase, an elderly eccentric who has been instrumental in upholding apartheid policies that separate the Invisibles from the visible Dominant Peoples. Fast-thinking and a decent tennis player, Sweetmint impresses Tenmase, who shares with her his half-baked plan to remake Northwestern society. After someone murders Northwestern's religious head honcho, suspicion falls on Sweetmint's brother, Shanu, who disappeared several years earlier, and Sweetmint sets out on a dangerous quest to find and protect him. She must first locate the parents who abandoned her and Shanu as babies and then navigate a labyrinth of arcane alliances, including the Rainbow Girls (her former classmates who paint themselves visible so they can work as prostitutes) and underground rebels who call themselves Children of Slim. Meanwhile, two Local Managers vie to become Northwestern's next Chief Executive, Tesmane's real identity is revealed, and violence simmers between the Invisibles and the Dominant Peoples. Askaripour crafts a plot so intricate and twisty it occasionally leaves the reader on the sidelines. At it's best, however, this energetic, speculative deconstruction of colonialism feels like watching an expert put together a 1000-piece jigsaw.