Nathaniel Rich
A novel about fear of the futureâ€”and the future of fear,New York City, the near future: Mitchell Zukor, a gifted young mathematician, is hired by a mysterious new financial consulting firm, FutureWorld. The business operates out of an empty office in the Empire State Building; Mitchell is employee number two. He is asked to calculate worst-case scenarios in the most intricate detail, and his schemes are sold to corporations to indemnify them against any future disasters.Â This is the cutting edge of corporate irresponsibility, and business is booming.,Â Â Â Â  As Mitchell immerses himself in the mathematics of catastropheâ€”ecological collapse, war games, natural disastersâ€”he becomes obsessed by a cultureâ€™s fears. Yet he also loses touch with his last connection to reality: Elsa Bruner, a friend with her own apocalyptic secret, who has started a commune in Maine. Then, just as Mitchellâ€™s predictions reach a nightmarish crescendo, an actual worst-case scenario overtakes Manhattan. Mitchell realizes he is uniquely prepared to profit. But at what cost?,Â Â Â Â  At once an all-too-plausible literary thriller, an unexpected love story, and a philosophically searching inquiry into the nature of fear, Nathaniel Richâ€™sÂ ,Odds Against TomorrowÂ ,poses the ultimate questions of imagination and civilization. The future is not quite what it used to be.
Fiction,Science Fiction,Science Fiction,Climate Change Fiction,Science Fiction,Dystopia,Apocalyptic,Post Apocalyptic,Novels,Contemporary,Literary Fiction,Science Fiction,Apocalyptic,New York
Odds Against Tomorrow