Things We Didn't See Coming by Steve Amsterdam

Steve Amsterdam’s Things We Didn’t See Coming is a remarkable account of a dystopian near future, and it is remarkable for what it leaves out. Amsterdam is deftly sparing with the details of social, political, and environmental rot as he tracks his protagonist from adolescence (during the Y2K scare, natch) into his forties. Each step of the way Amsterdam provides just enough description as to how the earth and the people on it are breaking down, but his narrative leaves open the questions of how and why. In doing so Amsterdam connects his vision of a dystopian near future to our experience of the present, when we too are left to wonder at the how and why of endless war and oil spills, or, if you like, endless spills and oil wars. So while we perhaps can’t see what’s coming, Amsterdam’s novel makes clear how blurry things already are.