ROEBUCK'S PRIZE

In Shapiro’s debut speculative novel, an emasculated man seeks redemption in the shadow economy.

In 2035, times are tough for a lot of people, including Raf Vella, a downsized estate planner turned stay-at-home dad (though he dislikes the term). He moonlights as a delivery man for specialty items—which, due to shortages, now encompass anything beyond the barest staples—which he picks up at a warehouse called the Depot. One night, Raf stumbles across an underground boxing match going on at the back of Depot, and he can’t help but be taken in by the high wagers and prizes. He steps into the ring and, unexpectedly, comes away a winner. The match provides his entry into the Real Deal Economy, a black market for all sorts of things, created by legal loopholes and Congressional gridlock. “We’re basically modern-day moonshiners-gone-corporate,” explains one RDE-er. Raf wants to become a Broker, someone who connects people and goods within the RDE and makes the kind of money that has become all but impossible to earn in the normal economy. If he can do that, maybe he can earn back the respect of his wife and provide for his daughter the way he wants to. To become a Broker, however, Raf will have to climb the dangerous ladder of the RDE. Is the money he might eventually make worth the things he’ll have to do to get there? Shapiro’s prose expertly sketches Raf’s world, which feels simultaneously alien and familiar. Though the dystopian premise is hardly unique, the details of Raf’s grim near-future are inventive and fresh (the precipitator of this dystopia, intriguingly, is a corrupted infrastructure that unexpectedly leads to kleptocracy.) Here the author describes television in the post-streaming world: “Advertising had basically dried up, and not enough people were willing or had the bucks to pay subscription fees. The whole industry had been replaced by a blizzard of so-called ‘user-generated content’ that consisted mainly of homemade videos, crudely-made amateur dramas and pirated copies of vintage TV shows.” It’s a quick, immersive tale that leaves its reader sated.

A sharply drawn satire set in a broken future economy.