{"product_id":"the-panopticon-isbn-9780385347952","title":"The Panopticon","description":"\u003cb\u003eNamed one of \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e's Best of Young British Novelists\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnais Hendricks, fifteen, is in the back of a police car. She is headed for the Panopticon, a home for chronic young offenders. She can't remember what’s happened, but across town a policewoman lies in a coma and Anais is covered in blood. Raised in foster care from birth and moved through twenty-three placements before she even turned seven, Anais has been let down by just about every adult she has ever met. Now a counterculture outlaw, she knows that she can only rely on herself. And yet despite the parade of horrors visited upon her early life, she greets the world with the witty, fierce insight of a survivor. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAnais finds a sense of belonging among the residents of the Panopticon—they form intense bonds, and she soon becomes part of an ad-hoc family. Together, they struggle against the adults that keep them confined. But when she looks up at the watchtower that looms over the residents, Anais realizes her fate: She is an anonymous part of an experiment, and she always was. Now it seems that the experiment is closing in.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for The Desmond Elliott Award\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShortlisted for The James Tait Black Prize\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fagan has created a feisty, brass-knuckled yet deeply vulnerable heroine, who feels like sort of a cross between Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson’s \u003ci\u003eGirl With the Dragon Tattoo\u003c\/i\u003e, and one of Irvine Welsh’s drug-taking Scottish miscreants from \u003ci\u003eTrainspotting\u003c\/i\u003e or \u003ci\u003eSkagboys\u003c\/i\u003e. Her novel is by turns gritty, unnerving, exhausting, [and] ferocious...A deeply felt and genuinely affecting novel.” —\u003cb\u003eMichiko Kakutani, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Fagan has given us one of the most spirited heroines to cuss, kiss, bite and generally break the nose of the English novel in many a moon...there is no resisting the tidal rollout of Fagan’s imagery. Her prose beats behind your eyelids, the flow of images widening to a glittering delta whenever Anais approaches the vexed issue of her origins...\u003ci\u003evive\u003c\/i\u003e Jenni Fagan...whose next book just moved into my ‘eagerly anticipated’ pile.” —\u003cb\u003eTom Shone, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Fagan] grew up in what’s euphemistically called ‘the care system,’ and she writes about these young people with a deep sympathy for their violently disordered lives and an equally deep appreciation of their humor and resiliency...[Fagan has a] rousing voice, with its roundly rendered Scottish accent.” —\u003cb\u003eRon Charles, \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A classic coming-of-age tale.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fagan’s style calls to mind fellow Scottish writer Anthony Burgess, whose novel \u003ci\u003eA Clockwork Orange\u003c\/i\u003e used similar lexicographic liberties to reinforce a theme of teenage dystopia.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Daily Beast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] terrific portrait of a young criminal...Fagan makes this ugly life somehow beautiful.”—\u003cb\u003eAlan Cheuse, \u003ci\u003eNPR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e [is] a terrifically gritty and vivid debut.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eCleveland Plain Dealer\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “She’s Oliver, with a twist. Anais Hendricks, 15, and the female protagonist of poetess Fagan’s first novel, cuts right to the chase as she chronicles the modern British foster care system.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“The Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e is like its protagonist: tough as old boots and always ready with the fists, but likely to steal your heart if you’ll just slow down and listen.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNational Post\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A]\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003efabulously sharp-elbowed debut novel...Not since Jonathan Safran Foer’s \u003ci\u003eExtremely Loud\u003c\/i\u003e have we met such motor-mouthed metaphysics. Layered with repetitions, peppered with hallucinations, \u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e reads like the monologue of a poet for whom words are bricks, they are arrows, they are, when well chosen, the way out.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Fagan creates a complex and vulnerable character...[and] even though Anais makes it hard for you to love her, you can’t help wishing her out of her plight and cheering her upward.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBust\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e(four stars)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“The Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e is an exquisite first novel—Jenni Fagan has created a dark, disturbing, yet ultimately hopeful portrait of a young woman growing up alone in the Scottish foster care system. To say it is haunting is an understatement—I kept wanting to set a place for Anais at the table with the rest of my children.” —\u003cb\u003eVanessa Diffenbaugh, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Language of Flowers\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Jenni Fagan has created a high-resolution portrait of a throwaway kid. Fifteen-year-old Anais, born in a mental ward, tumbled through the social work system, violated and violent, high on whatever, each decision she makes is a jaunty wave as she sails past the next point of no return. This is a contemporary tragedy of the highest order.\" —\u003cb\u003eCarol Anshaw, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eCarry the One\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In the Margaret Atwood\/\u003ci\u003eThe Handmaid’s Tale\u003c\/i\u003e vein—very literary and suspenseful. I like books set in an altered reality—one that feels familiar and yet also deeply unfamiliar, that embodies some of the dailiness of life, and yet slowly reveals itself to be a very different, much more sinister place.” —\u003cb\u003eGillian Flynn, Oprah.com \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"With \u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e, Fagan makes Foucault proud and readers ecstastic. This is why we read. You'll begin wanting to save Anais Hendricks but finish wondering if, and how, she's managed to save you.\" —\u003cb\u003eTupelo Hassman, author of \u003ci\u003eGirlchild\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Jenni Fagan is the real thing, and \u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e is a real treat: maturely alive to the pains of maturing, and cleverly amused as well as appalled by what it finds in the world.”\u003cb\u003e —Andrew Motion\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Ferocious and devastating,\u003ci\u003e The Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e sounds a battle-cry on behalf of the abandoned, the battered, and the betrayed. To call it a good novel is not good enough: this is an important novel, a book with a conscience, a passionate challenge to the powers-that-be. Jenni Fagan smashes every possible euphemism for adolescent intimacy and adolescent violence, and she does it with tenderness and even humour. Hats off to Jenni Fagan! I will be recommending this book to everyone I know.” —\u003cb\u003eEleanor Catton, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Rehearsal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“This is a wonderful book—gripping and brilliant. Anais’s journey will break your heart and her voice is unforgettable. Bursting with wit, humanity and beauty as well as an unflinching portrayal of life as a ‘cared for’ young adult, this book will not let you go.” \u003cb\u003e—Kate Williams\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Best debut novel I've read this year.” —\u003cb\u003eIrvine Welsh\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Uncompromising and courageous...one of the most cunning and spirited novels I’ve read for years. The story of Anais, a fifteen-year-old girl blasting her way through the care-home system while the system in turn blasts her away to nothing, looks on the surface to be work of a recognizable sort, the post-Dickensian moral realism\/fabulism associated with writers like Irvine Welsh. But Fagan’s narrative talent is really more reminiscent of early Camus and that this novel is a debut is near unbelievable. Tough and calm, electrifying and intent, it is an intelligent and deeply literary novel which deals its hope and hopelessness simultaneously with a humaneness, both urgent and timeless, rooted in real narrative subtlety.” —\u003cb\u003eAli Smith, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement—\u003c\/i\u003ebooks of the year\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“If you’re trying to find a novel to engage a determinedly illiterate teenager, give them this one. Anais, the 15-year-old heroine and narrator, has a rough, raw, joyous voice that leaps right off the page and grabs you by the throat...This punkish young philosopher is struggling with a terrible past, while battling sinister social workers. Though this will appeal to teenagers, the language and ideas are wholly adult, and the glorious Anais is unforgettable.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“[A] confident and deftly wrought debut...\u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e is an example of what Martin Amis has called the “voice novel”, the success of which depends on the convincing portrayal of an idiosyncratic narrator. In this Fagan excels...Her voice is compellingly realised. We cheer her on as she rails against abusive boyfriends and apathetic social workers, her defiance rendered in a rich Midlothian brogue.” —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The most assured and intriguing first novel by a Scottish writer that I have read in a decade, a book which is lithely and poetically written, politically and morally brave and simply unforgettable...As a debut, \u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e does everything it should. It announces a major new star in the firmament.” —\u003cb\u003eStuart Kelly, \u003ci\u003eScotsman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[The narrator] is engagingly drawn by Fagan, who has created a character possessed of intellectual curiosity and individual quirks...Written with great verve…Fagan has a clear voice, an unflinching feel for the complexity of the teenage mindset, and an awareness of the burden we impose on children...What’s intriguing here is her effort to lift the story of teen misadventure into a heightened realm of intellectual aspiration and quasi-sci-fi notions of sinister social change.” —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eScotland on Sunday\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What Fagan depicts in her debut novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e, is a society in which people don't just fall through the net—there is no net...Fagan is writing about important stuff: the losers, the lonely, most of them women. [Anais] maintains a cool, smart, pretty, witty and wise persona.” —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eGuardian\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Reminiscent of \u003ci\u003eGirl, Interrupted\u003c\/i\u003e…The novel is as bold, shocking and intelligent as its central character...The institutional details (magnolia walls, screwed-down chairs) anchor \u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e in realism, giving it a greater bite. Much of Anais’ life is the stuff of tabloid shock stories and \u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e’s strength lies in giving you an insight into the lonely, damaged girl behind the headlines...This week’s winner.” —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eStylist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An indictment of the care system, this dazzling and distinctive novel has at its heart an unstoppable heroine...Fagan’s prose is fierce, funny and brilliant at capturing her heroine’s sparky smartness and vulnerability...Emotionally explosive.” —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eMarie Claire\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fagan's writing is taut and controlled and the dialogue crackles.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis is the best debut I’ve read this year...and all because of the character of Anais, who is one of the best narrators I have ever come across.  An essential read.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLiving North\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Anais’s story is one of abandonment, loss, and redemption, well suited for a paranoid age in which society finds itself constantly under the microscope.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Dark and disturbing but also exciting and moving, thanks to a memorable heroine and vividly atmospheric prose…Fagan [paints] her battered characters’ fierce loyalty to each other with such conviction and surprising tenderness.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Told in Anais’ raw voice, Fagan’s novel peers into the world inhabited by forgotten children, and, in Anais, gives us a heartbreakingly intelligent and sensitive heroine wrapped in an impossibly impenetrable exterior. Readers won’t be able to tear themselves away from this transcendent debut.” —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Anais's ongoing internal dialog, her periodic reimagining of her life and situation, is entralling...James Kelman's \u003ci\u003eHow Late It Was, How Late\u003c\/i\u003e meets Ken Kesey's \u003ci\u003eOne Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest\u003c\/i\u003e. Not to be missed.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eJENNI FAGAN\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Livingston, Scotland. She graduated from Greenwich University and won a scholarship to the Royal Holloway MFA. A published poet, she has won awards from Arts Council England, Dewar Arts and Scottish Screen among others. She has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, was shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize, and was named one of \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e's Best of Young British Novelists in 2013. \u003ci\u003eThe Panopticon\u003c\/i\u003e is her first novel.One of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists","brand":"Hogarth","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305430274277,"sku":"NP9780385347952","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780385347952.jpg?v=1767740863","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-panopticon-isbn-9780385347952","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}