Birch and Jay - (The Knowledge Seekers) by Allister Thompson (Paperback)

About the Book

"Decades after the world was levelled by the effects of human-made climate change, the scattered remnants of humanity have begun to pull themselves together. Birch and Jay are a young couple living in a small, idyllic community away from the ruins of one of Canada's great cities. As a newly graduated Knowledge Seeker, Jay must leave Birch and their community to collect remnants of old wisdom from the dead world. Along the way, he comes across a mysterious elderly woman who offers to travel with him. He will receive more than a travel companion--she offers revelations a bout their town's founding as well as knowledge of how to survive in a lawless world. Birch, seeking adventure, pursues Jay but finds more danger than she ever imagined. Will they find each other in the chaos and brutality of the city and get safely back home to tell the tale? Birch and Jay will reunite in a place where they confront a terrible reminder of humanity's perennial flaw: repeating the tragic mistakes of the past."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Decades after the world was levelled by the effects of human-made climate change, the scattered remnants of humanity have begun to pull themselves together. Birch and Jay are a young couple living in a small, idyllic community away from the ruins of one of Canada's great cities.

As a newly graduated Knowledge Seeker, Jay must leave Birch and their community to collect remnants of old wisdom from the dead world. Along the way, he comes across a mysterious elderly woman who offers to travel with him. He will receive more than a travel companion -- she offers revelations about their town's founding as well as knowledge of how to survive in a lawless world.

Birch, seeking adventure, pursues Jay but finds more danger than she ever imagined. Will they find each other in the chaos and brutality of the city and get safely back home to tell the tale?

Review Quotes

An exciting adventure with important messages about caring for our world.

-- "Kirkus Review"

From the moment Jay sets out on his journey, I could feel I was about to experience something incredible. The depth of this novel--with themes of love, hope, and defining one's purpose--is wrapped in a tale of adventure that will shift your emotions with every turn of the page. Not only is this story necessary, it's imaginative and devastating in ways that will force you to confront how you live your life.

--Kern Carter, author of Is There a Boy Like Me? and And There Was Us

Thompson's novel offers a compelling salutary tale of a future which we would all be much better avoiding. In this future Ontario, a fraught landscape sets the scene for an entertaining tale where teenage angst, wanderlust, and desire play out in a plausibly violent dystopic future. The kind of future that is coming if we, the current inhabitants of Ontario, and much of the rest of the modern world, don't change our hyper-consumptive ways and start taking the future seriously.

--Simon Dalby, Professor Emeritus, Wilfrid Laurier University, author of Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate Disrupted World

About the Author

Allister Thompson spent his youth dividing his time between working as an editor for Toronto-based publishers and touring with a rock band. He is also the author of an alternate history sci-fi novel, The Music of the Spheres. He currently runs his own freelance editorial business out of his home in North Bay.