A Brutal Design by Zachary C. Solomon

FIC040000 FICTION / Alternative HistoryFIC055000 FICTION / DystopianFIC019000 FICTION / LiteraryPrint ISBN: 978-1-941360-81-1Digital ISBN: 978-1-941360-82-8Paperback, 5.25x8x.58 • 264 pages • Case: 48 Available January 30, 2024 After the fascist takeover of his homeland and the murder of his parents, Jewish architecture student Samuel Zelnik thinks that he and his friends are bound for the gulag—or worse. Instead, he receives an unexpected offer of freedom working in the experimental utopian city of Duma. Awed by the city’s dramatic architecture but confused by the other residents’ strange behavior, Zelnik searches for his long-lost uncle who emigrated to Duma before him. His wanderings reunite him with Miriana Grannoff, an exiled avant-garde artist who was once his teacher. Her memorial installations hidden around the city equally enchant and repel him. And gradually, they begin to reveal a truth: Duma is not the workers’ paradise it pretends to be. Praise for A Brutal Design "Part u