{"product_id":"the-unit-isbn-9781590513132","title":"The Unit","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"I enjoyed \u003ci\u003eThe Unit\u003c\/i\u003e very much...I know you will be riveted, as I was.\" —Margaret Atwood on Twitter\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA modern day classic and a chilling cautionary tale for fans of \u003ci\u003eThe Handmaid's Tale\u003c\/i\u003e. Named a BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH by \u003ci\u003eGQ\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood, \u003ci\u003eThe Unit\u003c\/i\u003e is as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable.” —Jessica Crispin, NPR.org\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNinni Holmqvist’s uncanny dystopian novel envisions a society in the not-so-distant future, where women over fifty and men over sixty who are unmarried and childless are sent to a retirement community called the Unit. They’re given lavish apartments set amongst beautiful gardens and state-of-the-art facilities; they’re fed elaborate gourmet meals, surrounded by others just like them. It’s an idyllic place, but there’s a catch: the residents—known as dispensables—must donate their organs, one by one, until the final donation. When Dorrit Weger arrives at the Unit, she resigns herself to this fate, seeking only peace in her final days. But she soon falls in love, and this unexpected, improbable happiness throws the future into doubt.\u003cb\u003eNamed one of the Best Novels of the Year by the \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Echoing work by Marge Piercy and Margaret Atwood, \u003ci\u003eThe Unit \u003c\/i\u003eis as thought-provoking as it is compulsively readable.” --Jessa Crispin, author of \u003ci\u003eWhy I Am Not a Feminist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A haunting, deadpan tale set vaguely in the Scandinavian future…Holmqvist’s spare prose interweaves the Unit’s pleasures and cruelties with exquisite matter-of-factness…[Holmqvist] turns the screw, presenting a set of events so miraculous and abominable that they literally made me gasp.” --\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This haunting first novel imagines a nation in which men and women who  haven’t had children by a certain age are taken to a “reserve bank unit  for biological material” and subjected to various physical and  psychological experiments, while waiting to have their organs harvested  for “needed” citizens in the outside world… Holmqvist evocatively  details the experiences of a woman who falls in love with another  resident, and at least momentarily attempts to escape her fate.” --\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Holmqvist handles her dystopia with muted, subtle care...Neither satirical nor polemical,\u003ci\u003e The Unit \u003c\/i\u003emanages to express a fair degree of moral outrage without ever moralizing…it has enough spooks to make it a feminist, philosophical page-turner.” --\u003ci\u003eTimeOut Chicago\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This is one of the best books I’ve read over the past two years...Thought-provoking and emotionally-moving, The Unit is a book you’ll be discussing with others long after you’re done reading it.” --\u003ci\u003eOrlando Sentinel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Chilling…stunning…Holmqvist’s fluid, mesmerizing novel offers unnerving commentary on the way society devalues artistic creation while elevating procreation, and speculation on what it would be like if that was taken to an extreme. For Orwell and Huxley fans.\" --\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Like Margaret Atwood’s \u003ci\u003eThe Handmaid’s Tale\u003c\/i\u003e, this novel imagines a chilling dystopia: single, childless, midlife women are considered dispensable. At 50 the narrator, Dorrit, is taken to a facility where non-vital organs will be harvested one by one for people more valued by society; she knows that eventually she’ll have to sacrifice something essential’ like her heart. Dorrit accepts her fate–until she falls in love and finds herself breaking the rules.\" --\u003ci\u003eMore Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eNinni Holmqvist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNinni Holmqvist was born in 1958 and lives in Skåne, Sweden. She made her debut in 1995 with the short story collection \u003ci\u003eSuit\u003c\/i\u003e [\u003ci\u003eKostym\u003c\/i\u003e] and has published two further collections of short stories since then. She also works as a translator. \u003ci\u003eThe Unit\u003c\/i\u003e marks Holmqvist’s debut as a novelist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMarlaine Delargy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eMarlaine Delargy has translated novels by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Kristina Ohlsson, and Helene Tursten, as well as \u003ci\u003eThe Unit\u003c\/i\u003e by Ninni Holmqvist (Other Press) and Therese Bohman’s \u003ci\u003eDrowned \u003c\/i\u003e(Other Press). She lives in England.It was more comfortable than I could have imagined. A room of my own with a bathroom, or rather a suite of my own, because there were two rooms: a bedroom and a living room with a kitchenette. It was light and spacious, furnished in a modern style and tastefully decorated in muted colors. True, the tiniest nook or cranny was monitored by cameras, and I would soon realize there were hidden microphones there too. But the cameras weren’t hidden.  There was one in each corner of the ceiling–small but perfectly visible–and in every corner and every hallway that wasn’t visible from the ceiling; inside the closets, for example, and behind doors and protruding cabinets. Even under the bed and under the sink in the kitchenette. Anywhere a person might crawl in or curl up, there was a camera. Sometimes as you moved through a room they followed you with their one-eyed stare. A faint humming noise gave away the fact that at that particular moment someone on the surveillance team was paying close attention to what you were doing. Even the bathroom was monitored. There were no less than three cameras within that small space, two on the ceiling and one underneath the wash basin. This meticulous surveillance applied not only to the private suites, but also to the communal areas. And of course nothing else was to be expected. It was not the intention that anyone should be able to take their own life or harm themselves in some other way. Not once you were here. You should have sorted that out beforehand, if you were thinking along those lines.","brand":"Other Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300655059173,"sku":"NP9781590513132","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590513132.jpg?v=1767741998","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-unit-isbn-9781590513132","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}