During-the-Event

This coming-of-age tale set in a dystopian America explores deep themes of trust and loss. Young teen D.E. has only ever known a solitary existence in rural North Dakota with his adoptive grandfather, Otis, who claims membership in the Hidatsa Indian tribe. After environmental disasters ravaged the States, the united governments of U.S., Canada, and Mexico attempted to reduce the population of “old, sick, hungry, displaced, unskilled, and undesirable people.” This continental genocide left few survivors. Some have been moved to the Center, where they live in drug-induced bliss, but D.E. and Otis are among the Overlooked, and Otis makes sure they stay that way, hiding them both whenever someone approaches and teaching D.E. traditional skills for living off the land. When Otis dies, it is up to D.E. to make his own way in a harsh new world. As he encounters different people who come across his home of White Earth River, he learns difficult truths about Otis, his parents, and the patchwork remnants of civilization. Wall’s careful characterization balances teenage growing pains with the maturity forced by scrabbling for survival, and he creates an intimate human portrait of D.E. and those he meets. Fans of literary dystopian fiction such as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road will appreciate Wall’s vivid, powerful vision of the future. (Apr.)