Intro: Around the Fire
Chapter One: The Great Unraveling
Chapter Two: In Brussels
Chapter Three: In Ningxia
Chapter Four: In Gaborone
Chapter Five: In Arcadia
Chapter Six: In Extremis
$3,000 marketing and publicity budget
National drive-time radio tour
National radio and TV interviews
Features and excerpts in The Nation, Truthout, In These Times,
Jacobin, The Progressive, Truthdig,
Promotion through TomDispatch.com
Publicity and promotion in conjunction with the author's speaking
engagements
John Feffer is a playwright and the author of several books
including the novel Foamers. His articles have appeared in The New
York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Salon, and others. He
is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for
Policy Studies.
"In a chilling, thoughtful, and intuitive warning, foreign policy
analyst Feffer (Crusade 2.0) takes today’s woes of a politically
fragmented, warming Earth and amplifies them into future
catastrophe. Looking back from his hospital bed in 2050,
octogenarian geo-paleontologist Julian West contemplates his
fractured world and estranged family. West is writing the follow-up
to his bestselling 2020 monograph, Splinterlands, in which he
analyzes the disintegrated international community. By 2050, the
refugee-saturated European Union has collapsed; the countries of
Brazil, Russia, India, and China have splintered; and Washington,
D.C., is gone, destroyed by Hurricane Donald in 2022. There are
water wars, imitation foods made from seaweed, inequality, disease,
and sleeper terrorists. On a virtual reality trip to make amends,
West visits his children—professor Aurora in a deteriorating
Brussels rampant with kidnappings; wealthy opportunist Gordon in
Xinjiang, no longer part of China; and freedom fighter Benjamin in
prosperous Botswana. His ex-wife, Rachel, lives in a commune in a
snowless Vermont, now a farming paradise. Lending credibility to
his predictions, Feffer includes footnotes from West’s editor
written around 2058. This novel is not for the emotionally
squeamish or optimistic; Feffer’s confident recitation of world
collapse is terrifyingly plausible, a short but encompassing look
at world tragedy. "
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Feffer’s book is a wild ride through a bleak future, casting a
harsh, thought-provoking light on that future’s modern-day
roots.”
—Foreword Reviews
"Just as it’s especially enjoyable to read science fiction written
by real scientists, Feffer offers readers a uniquely
well-researched and historically robust argument for why the world
turns out the way that it does, which makes it all the more
relevant—and frightening. "
—Washington City Paper
"Readers who enjoy dystopian stories that hold more than a light
look at political structures and their downfall will more than
appreciate the in-depth approach John Feffer takes in his
novel."
—Midwest Book Review
"Splinterlands is a short and powerful dystopian novel, framed as
an all-too-credible account of what might happen in our
lifetimes."
—Climate and Capitalism
"John Feffer is our 21st-century Jack London, and, like the
latter's Iron Heel, Splinterlands is a vivid, suspenseful warning
about the ultimate incompatibility between capitalism and human
survival."
—Mike Davis
“Feffer’s book, in short, is provocative in the best sense….The
dystopic alternative, illustrated so powerfully in Feffer’s
Splinterlands, provides us with powerful motivation to shape a
better, less splintered, future.”
—W. J. Astore
"Splinterlands paints a startling portrait of a post-apocalyptic
tomorrow that is fast becoming a reality today. Fast-paced, yet
strangely haunting, Feffer's latest novel looks back from 2050 on
the disintegration of world order told through the story of one
broken family-- and offers a disturbing vision of what might await
us all if we don't act quickly."
—Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickle and Dimed and Living with a
Wild God, and founder of the Economic Hardship Reporting
Project
“A chilling portrayal of where the politics of division could take
us. Now I only hope he writes the sequel to tell us how to avoid
it!”
—Naomi Oreskes, co-author of The Collapse of Western
Civilization
“Splinterlands offers the reader a bleak prospect. But it’s one
which should also inspire a resounding cry of defiance for personal
and collective revolution. It does not have to be this way.”
–Counterfire
"In a chilling, thoughtful, and intuitive warning, foreign policy
analyst Feffer (Crusade 2.0) takes today’s woes of a politically
fragmented, warming Earth and amplifies them into future
catastrophe. Looking back from his hospital bed in 2050,
octogenarian geo-paleontologist Julian West contemplates his
fractured world and estranged family. West is writing the follow-up
to his bestselling 2020 monograph, Splinterlands, in which he
analyzes the disintegrated international community. By 2050, the
refugee-saturated European Union has collapsed; the countries of
Brazil, Russia, India, and China have splintered; and Washington,
D.C., is gone, destroyed by Hurricane Donald in 2022. There are
water wars, imitation foods made from seaweed, inequality, disease,
and sleeper terrorists. On a virtual reality trip to make amends,
West visits his childrenprofessor Aurora in a deteriorating
Brussels rampant with kidnappings; wealthy opportunist Gordon in
Xinjiang, no longer part of China; and freedom fighter Benjamin in
prosperous Botswana. His ex-wife, Rachel, lives in a commune in a
snowless Vermont, now a farming paradise. Lending credibility to
his predictions, Feffer includes footnotes from West’s editor
written around 2058. This novel is not for the emotionally
squeamish or optimistic; Feffer’s confident recitation of world
collapse is terrifyingly plausible, a short but encompassing look
at world tragedy. "
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Feffer’s book is a wild ride through a bleak future, casting a
harsh, thought-provoking light on that future’s modern-day
roots.”
Foreword Reviews
"Just as it’s especially enjoyable to read science fiction written
by real scientists, Feffer offers readers a uniquely
well-researched and historically robust argument for why the world
turns out the way that it does, which makes it all the more
relevantand frightening. "
Washington City Paper
"Readers who enjoy dystopian stories that hold more than a light
look at political structures and their downfall will more than
appreciate the in-depth approach John Feffer takes in his
novel."
Midwest Book Review
"Splinterlands is a short and powerful dystopian novel, framed as
an all-too-credible account of what might happen in our
lifetimes."
Climate and Capitalism
"John Feffer is our 21st-century Jack London, and, like the
latter's Iron Heel, Splinterlands is a vivid, suspenseful warning
about the ultimate incompatibility between capitalism and human
survival."
Mike Davis
Feffer’s book, in short, is provocative in the best sense
.The
dystopic alternative, illustrated so powerfully in Feffer’s
Splinterlands, provides us with powerful motivation to shape a
better, less splintered, future.”
W. J. Astore
"Splinterlands paints a startling portrait of a post-apocalyptic
tomorrow that is fast becoming a reality today. Fast-paced, yet
strangely haunting, Feffer's latest novel looks back from 2050 on
the disintegration of world order told through the story of one
broken family-- and offers a disturbing vision of what might await
us all if we don't act quickly."
Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickle and Dimed and Living with a
Wild God, and founder of the Economic Hardship Reporting
Project
A chilling portrayal of where the politics of division could take
us. Now I only hope he writes the sequel to tell us how to avoid
it!”
Naomi Oreskes, co-author of The Collapse of Western
Civilization
"Splinterlands could conceivably be the story of our lives." —LJ
World
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