SANCTUARY

In this debut dystopian novel, a mother follows her son, who’s escaped their safe city to find his wasteland-dwelling father.

Beneath the false sky and within the high walls of Sanctuary, life is secure and controlled. Outside, the world lies in ruins after floods, toxic rain, dust storms, howling winds, disease, and social breakdown. Of the few settlements nearby, Asia City has been abandoned and the City of the South is dangerous and filthy. Nevertheless, 16-year-old Alex chafes beneath Sanctuary’s restrictions and constant surveillance. He longs for something more real than the city’s digital simulacra of a remembered past—features of the kind his mother, Miranda, designs; she’s Sanctuary’s top worldbuilder. Alex was 4 years old when his father, Peter, left for the City of the South, adventure, and freedom. Through a back-channel contact, Peter persuades Alex to join him. Alex soon finds that the world outside Sanctuary is even more brutal than he’d imagined, yet he also finds new hope for the planet’s future. Miranda’s search to bring Alex home leads to hardship, sorrow, and the realization of her worst fears. In the end, though, the experience enables fresh creativity in the service of world healing. In her engaging SF novel, Agnew offers a dual mother-son perspective that allows for thoughtfully complex explorations. For example, Miranda derides Alex’s less prestigious career goal of becoming a story maker, but she also creates fictions: “What is Sanctuary but a giant story? A great big ball of make-believe.” Meanwhile, the reality Alex discovers in the City of the South and in his father shakes his foundations and gives him a new appreciation for his mother. Like Miranda, the author is a skilled worldbuilder who pays attention to details, enriching the story.

A tough-minded, compelling tale of how post-apocalyptic humans might find renewal.