“Feels like a genuine discovery… Timely and unexpectedly moving.”
—The Daily Beast
“Don’t read this book in bed unless you want to stay up past your bedtime thrilled by the discovery of a new writer. . . . [A] stunning read.” —The Millions
“Enters the literary world with a full-blown talent that can’t be stopped.” —Library Journal (starred review)
"The perfect combination of uncanny landscapes, existential anxiety and social critique" —Australian Book Review
“Dire as many of the developments are in Things We Didn’t See Coming, the restrained beauty of the storytelling provides an uplifting balance.”
—Sydney Morning Herald
“Preternaturally assured, finely crafted and thoroughly accomplished, it deserves to be read widely.”
—The Age (Melbourne)
“[Amsterdam] bolsters his dystopian vision with issues facing our planet, from climate change to refugees; computer bugs to medical malpractice. Each of these issues that fill our daily news consumption and contribute to heightened anxieties is, in Amsterdam’s hands, a mere backdrop to explore how humans need not become devils in the face of approaching annihilation. Which makes Things We Didn’t See Coming a far more hopeful book than its subject indicates.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“Impressive and believable…. Amsterdam’s understated predictions are refreshing.” —The Onion’s A.V. Club
“Amsterdam blazes through his bleak tale of hope—the true heart of any good dystopia…. Thought-provoking entertainment.” —San Antonio Current
“Spare, effective, and, when it needs to be, even stunning. . . . The characters we encounter in these narratives . . . feel alive and whole.” —Orion Magazine
“[A] clever blend of humor and razor-edged sadness” —Courier-Mail (Brisbane)
“A sharp debut. . . . Amsterdam resists the temptation to turn any of the stories into cautionary tales or sermons...[He] takes an unexpected approach by forgoing a narrative arc to focus on individual people and incidents instead of the larger world.” —The Wichita Eagle
“Something very strange happens upon finishing Steven Amsterdam’s (remarkably assured and kind of masterful) stories: what should be a bum trip through a variety of dystopias—foodless worlds; heartless periods of ceaseless rain and savagery; breakouts of peace and plenty marked by venality and ambition; biblical pestilence and illness—ends up anything but; one puts down the book feeling something close to hope. Perhaps it’s the life-is-long, cyclical wisdom of it all, maybe it’s a newfound appreciation for the Here And Now, although I’m inclined to think it’s just gratitude that there are such writers around.” —David Rakoff, author of Half Empty and Don’t Get Comfortable
“Bold, original, and sneakily affecting.” —Emily Maguire, author of Taming the Beast
“There’s more happening between the lines in this book than there is within the lines of many other novels of literary fiction. Amsterdam’s writing is tight, calculated and compelling, allowing the characters to breathe into life. ”
—Andrew Hutchinson, author of Rohypnol
“In this book we hear a voice as naturally surprising as the jazz of Django Reinhardt or Dexter Gordon. A real writer, in short.” —Gary Indiana, author of The Shanghai Gesture and Utopia’s Debris
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Things We Didn’t See Coming
READING GUIDE
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•Each chapter involves a different kind of disaster or milestone of decline. How far in the future do the different chapters feel and why? Which events or societal shifts seem possible?
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•The only chapter set in the past, “What We Know Now” takes place on the eve of Y2K, with the narrator’s father panicking about the grid collapsing. How does this starting point—about a disaster that didn’t happen—change your reading of the apocalyptic changes that come in later chapters?
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•Things We Didn’t See Coming has an unusual structure. Each chapter is set at least three years apart. Most conclude with the narrator finding himself in uncertain territory, that seems to be resolved by the start of the next chapter. Are these linked short stories or is it a discontinuous narrative? How do the chronological gaps between the chapters shape your reading of the narrator’s life? What questions do they leave unanswered?
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•The Guardian (UK) wrote “Amsterdam’s tone is refreshingly unapocalyptic.” What sort of counterpoint does the narrator’s wry outlook provide to the severity of the setting?
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•Neither the narrator nor the book’s terrain is ever specifically named. What does having an unnamed narrator do for a story like this? Where is this story set? Why?
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•While watching the movie Robocop, the narrator comments, “… the futuristic stuff is interesting because they got everything so wrong.” (from “The Forest and the Trees”) Given that Things We Didn’t See Coming is mostly set in the future, how does his comment relate? Does the book feel like a predictive text or something else?
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•Recent novels that take place in dystopian settings, including Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood, similarly portray worlds of deprivation and social breakdown. In what way is Things We Didn’t See Coming different from other contemporary books about the future?
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•“Land Management looks the other way as long as we clear out the stragglers. They keep us on horses to prevent us from carrying away too much of the take. They say it saves on fuel, but the way it is now they’ve got to provide me as well as my horse with enough meds to stay functional. A jeep would be cheaper and faster.” (from “Dry Land”) “I had just started in Verification, [Margo] had finished training to work in Grief, but both of us were helping out Rescue.” (from “Uses for Vinegar”) Despite the continual chaos, government control and bureaucracy is evident throughout much of Things We Didn’t See Coming. What aspects of its presence seem familiar? As the narrator works in several different government roles over the course of the book, how does his relationship to the sytem change?
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•Do the narrator and Margo have “a chemical basis for love” (from “Uses for Vinegar”)? Is a “practical union” (from “The Forest and the Trees”) a good solution for them?
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•Health plays a significant role in the book. Illness impacts the grandmother, the narrator, as well as his tour group (“My niche is the last-hurrah set, folks with at least two major cancers or a primary ailment, but still sporty enough to manage a little adventure.” (from “Best Medicine”). To what extent does it inform the decisions he makes?
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•It is sometimes said that inside every dystopian novel is a utopian novel trying to get out. If this is true, and they are two sides of one idea, why might dystopian novels be more prevalent at present? Several reviewers have spoken of a sense of hope throughout Things We Didn’t See Coming. Where do you find it?
