Orphans (Switchgrass Books) - Softcover

"Channeling Orwell and Melville, with a nod to popular American culture, Tanzer (Lucky Man) creates a template for human disaffection and passivity in the face of incomprehensible and omnipotent forces ... this bleak, powerful book is a harrowing cautionary tale about a future that threatens to overwhelm human individuality." -Publishers Weekly "Patently satirical, "Orphans" is about the reality of responsibility and the limitations imposed on us in adulthood by a capitalist society. Tanzer's setting and scenario owe much to George Orwell and Philip K. Dick, territory that sf fans might enjoy revisiting." - Booklist" ""Orphans "is a brilliantly conceived dystopian novel that explores and parses out with wonderful economy the many stranded conflicts of contemporary fathrhood. Tanzer truly possesses a unique writing voice. I don't know of anyone who writes about fatherhood the way Tanzer does." Joseph G. Peterson, author of "Beautiful Piece," " Inside the Whale: A Novel in Verse," and "Wanted Elevator Man"" "For a novel involving flash mob protests, martian real estate deals, and robot hand jobs, "Orphans "is deeply affecting and terribly tender. This is "1984 "by way of Tom Perrotta." - Salvatore Pane, author of "Last Call in the City of Bridges""

Welcome to Chicago, where black helicopters police a city of burnt-out neighborhoods, and punk themes of drugs, lost innocence, and sex do battle while our worst fears about growing up come to life. In Orphans, Ben Tanzer brings us a dystopian tale of a strangely familiar - and a strangely empty-city. Thousands have already left for Mars, but here on Earth the workers have been replaced by robots and the lucky few who can still find employment are being replaced in their homes and in their beds by clones. The streets are full of the jobless and the recession is permanent. With no redemption in sight, Tanzer offers up a bleak play on contemporary male fears in a world that seems determined to bring them to life.