About this item
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. In lean, spare 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.
About the Author
Eric Barnes of is the author of the novels Above the Ether (Arcade Publishing 2019) , The City Where We Once lived (Arcade Publishing 2018) , Shimmer, (an IndieNext Pick from Unbridled Books) , and Something Pretty, Something Beautiful (Outpost19) . He has published more than 40 short stories in journals such as Prairie Schooner, The Literary Review and Best American Mystery Stories. www.ericbarnes.net"An eerie, beautifully written, and profoundly humane book." - Emily St. John Mandel, author of STATION ELEVEN, about THE CITY WHERE WE ONCE LIVEDPraise for ABOVE THE ETHER:"Barnes' spare and chilling prose flows from one horrific scene to another without, surprisingly, alienating his readers, perhaps because the heart of his narrative ultimately reveals an abiding faith in the power of human compassion. A first-rate apocalyptic page-turner." - Booklist"In twenty years - or less - people will have a hard time believing that this is a work of the imagination; that's how convincingly Barnes plays out the signs and omens of our times. That he conjures this dark forecast without ever naming a soul or the cities they live in does not make the story more otherworldly, but only more chillingly recognizable." - Tim Johnston, NY Times bestselling author of THE CURRENT"The world of Eric Barnes' novel Above the Ether suffers destruction of Biblical proportions. Flood, fire, pestilence, famine - the rolling cataclysms have an Old Testament tenor and scope. Though the novel builds in intensity as the story lines interweave, it derives its power from the poetic quality of its language." - Chapter 16"Above the Ether depicts a dystopia more terrifying because of its proximity to our own, yet this novel is also saturated by hope. In this world, people can rise above their pasts, and humanity can endure change and hardship. Barnes is also just a terrific writer of both story and sentence." - Elise Blackwell, author of THE LOWER QUARTER and HUNGERPraise for the CITY WHERE WE ONCE LIVED:"Barnes's new novel is a rare and truly original work: a hard-edged fable, tender and unflinching, in which a man's descent and renewal is mirrored by his city. An eerie, beautifully written, and profoundly humane book." - Emily St. John Mandel, author of STATION ELEVEN"Written in a gorgeously spare language that perfectly reflects the dystopic future this novel depicts, The City Where We Once Lived kept me enthralled throughout. At the core is a deep and admirable compassion for humanity." - Chris Offutt, author of COUNTRY DARK"A stunningly-written tale of loss and grief." - Lindsay Moran, former CIA operative and author of BLOWING MY COVER"Spare and elegant, Eric Barnes shows us what it means to inhabit - a building, a city, a life. And also what it means to be inhabited - by memories, by ghosts, and maybe, just maybe, by hope." - Elise Blackwell, author of THE LOWER QUARTER
