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The Future

Written by: Catherine Leroux, Susan Ouriou - translator
Narrated by: Karie Richards
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Publisher's Summary

Longlisted for Canada Reads 2023 • One of Tor.com’s Can’t Miss Speculative Fiction for Fall 2023 • Listed in CBC Books Fiction to Read in Fall 2023 • One of Kirkus Reviews’ Fall 2023 Big Books By Small Presses • A Kirkus Review Work of Translated Fiction To Read Now • One of CBC Books Best Books of 2023

In an alternate history in which the French never surrendered Detroit, children protect their own kingdom in the trees.

In an alternate history of Detroit, the Motor City was never surrendered to the US. Its residents deal with pollution, poverty, and the legacy of racism—and strange and magical things are happening: children rule over their own kingdom in the trees and burned houses regenerate themselves. When Gloria arrives looking for answers and her missing granddaughters, at first she finds only a hungry mouse in the derelict home where her daughter was murdered. But the neighbours take pity on her and she turns to their resilience and impressive gardens for sustenance.

When a strange intuition sends Gloria into the woods of Parc Rouge, where the city’s orphaned and abandoned children are rumored to have created their own society, she can’t imagine the strength she will find. A richly imagined story of community and a plea for persistence in the face of our uncertain future, The Future is a lyrical testament to the power we hold to protect the people and places we love—together.

©2023 Catherine Leroux (P)2024 Biblioasis International Translation Series
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What the critics say

“What makes The Future hopeful is its imagining of new, organic, co-operative (but not egalitarian) communities ... savage but caring networks: small, local, and while living close to the edge still managing to get by. It may not be progress, but it is adapting to a vision of the future that hits pretty close to home.”—Alex Good, Toronto Star

The Future takes place in a post apocalyptic Detroit where everyone speaks French, which is super cool. It’s the most magical response to the Lord of the Flies, you’re going to meet a group of feral murderous children, whose meditations on life are so gorgeous, and absurd, and perverse that they are poetry. This wild group of children show us a model for a new society where everyone’s dream life is equally important.”—Heather O’Neill, championing The Future on CBC Canada Reads

“This atmospheric novel elevates disparate voices, drawing a complex picture of community-focused life beyond the family unit.”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

What listeners say about The Future

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Terrible

If I could, I would give this story, performance and overall book a negative 500 stars. Just terrible. The reader sounds like a child in Kindergarten that just began to learn to read.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Not for me

I just couldn’t get into this. Began to listen as part of Canada Reads, but eventually gave up. Just not my genre. Seems well written, and narration was fine. Just wasn’t for me, and I have so many other books I really want to listen to.

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I wanted to like it

How could a book written so beautifully lose my interest so often. Nicely written but the story just wasn’t there for me. Not sure how it won Canada reads. It had potential but really fell flat

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Couldn't Finish

Sorry, I know that this book won this year's Canada Reads competition, which is why I wanted to "read" it. But, unfortunately for me, I just didn't like it. I couldn't connect at all and finally gave up. The narrator was decent. I found it to be "bleak" and rather depressing, interspersed with some flowery, descriptive language. All in all, for me, it just wasn't a book I was interested in reading.

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Not worth the credit

The reader was terrible. I found it confusing, possible because of the reader. I couldn’t really identify a “plot”.

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