Goliath - by Tochi Onyebuchi (Paperback)

About the Book

"In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighborhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked. A primal biblical epic flung into the future, Goliath weaves together disparate narratives--a space-dweller looking at New Haven, Connecticut as a chance to reconnect with his spiraling lover; a group of laborers attempting to renew the promises of Earth's crumbling cities; a journalist attempting to capture the violence of the streets; a marshal trying to solve a kidnapping--into a richly urgent mosaic about race, class, gentrification, and who is allowed to be the hero of any history."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick!

A Best Book of the Year for Time NPR The Guardian Gizmodo Portalist New York Public Library

A Most Anticipated Pick for USA Today Bustle Buzzfeed Goodreads Nerdist io9 WBUR Polygon The New Scientist

Locus Award Finalist! Connecticut Book Award for Fiction winner! Dragon Award Finalist! Legacy Award Finalist!

"In this ambitious novel, dense with perspectives and social commentary, Onyebuchi dreams up disparate lives in a crumbling future America--with gentrifiers returning to Earth from space colonies and laborers trying to make a precarious living--while leaving room for moments of beauty and humor."--The New York Times, Editors' Choice

In his adult novel debut, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Award finalist and ALA Alex and New England Book Award winner Tochi Onyebuchi delivers a sweeping science fiction epic in the vein of Samuel R. Delany and Station Eleven.

In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighborhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked.

A primal biblical epic flung into the future, Goliath weaves together disparate narratives--a space-dweller looking at New Haven, Connecticut as a chance to reconnect with his spiraling lover; a group of laborers attempting to renew the promises of Earth's crumbling cities; a journalist attempting to capture the violence of the streets; a marshal trying to solve a kidnapping--into a richly urgent mosaic about race, class, gentrification, and who is allowed to be the hero of any history.

Review Quotes

A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick!

A Most Anticipated Pick for USA Today Bustle Buzzfeed Goodreads Nerdist io9 WBUR Polygon The New Scientist

"In this ambitious novel, dense with perspectives and social commentary, Onyebuchi dreams up disparate lives in a crumbling future America--with gentrifiers returning to Earth from space colonies and laborers trying to make a precarious living--while leaving room for moments of beauty and humor."--The New York Times, Editors' Choice

"Goliath contains a sprawling collection of characters making their way across a future Earth--already abandoned by the wealthy--that feels vividly, grimly real. This is an arrival."--John Scalzi

"Onyebuchi sets fire to the boundary between fiction and reality, and brings a crumbling city and an all too plausible future to vibrant life. Riveting, disturbing, and rendered in masterful detail."--Leigh Bardugo

"A work of stunningly careful craftsmanship on every level. A vision of a future so plausible it's frightening. Onyebuchi's at his best here."--R. F. Kuang

"A big, bold future history. . . . Expertly orchestrated detail and scope . . . . a structurally ambitious novel . . . . Goliath is a giant achievement."--The Guardian

"[A] sprawling work of futuristic science fiction...Onyebuchi's tightly packed prose gives a look into the unimaginable desperation of living in a post-apocalyptic world."--Time

"A bleak but fruitful novelistic landscape."--NY Mag

"Tochi Onyebuchi's searing prose is an emotional journey in every sentence, and Goliathproves that he can take on vast systems of inequality on an interstellar scale."--Gizmodo

"Harrowing, visionary. . . . it's urgent, gorgeous work."--Publishers Weekly

"An ingenious premise: Onyebuchi suburbanizes outer space and makes battered, almost uninhabitable provincial America the frontier. . . . [He] showcases an impressive range. . ."--The New York Times

"Onyebuchi weaves together disparate tales about those living both on Earth and above it. And through those stories we question who gets to be the hero of any history. This is an epic of biblical proportions, the kind of sci-fi storytelling that feels ever more vital."--Nerdist

"With interweaving timelines and characters, this is a dense read that, like the best dystopias, critiques current political and social problems."--Buzzfeed

"One of our favorite SFF books of 2022 . . . Impressive in its scale, ambition, and range of voice, Goliath is a shattering work that is so much more than the sum of its parts."--Polygon

"Goliath is a haunting and incisive look at a world that could very much be our own."--Los Angeles Review of Books

"The premise is wry and au courant. In a lesser writer's hands, it could lead to lazy and cynical caricatures, but Onyebuchi uses it only as a jumping off point into a deeper examination of the idea of home, and what we will do to get there."--The New Scientist

"This brainy, brawny sci-fi story that uses futuristic concepts to comment on 2022 and eternal issues of class, disenfranchisement, and cold, hard capitalism."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Onyebuchi's adult novel debut is a full sensory experience of language and imagery, readers are given a near-future world where race, class, and gentrification still drives the narrative, both on Earth and in the stars."--Library Journal

"Onyebuchi masterfully pivots through a range of perspectives in nonlinear fashion to create this entirely believable landscape of future history."--WBUR

Praise for Riot Baby An Alex Award Winner Winner of the New England Book Award A World Fantasy Award Winner An Ignyte Award Winner A Hugo Award Finalist Nebula Award Finalist

"Onyebuchi's voice work is magnificent, sharp and whipping. . . . This book recognizes that intimate knowledge of suffering can be a source of strength, can be sustaining as well as depressing -- that we can grieve the inheritance of generations of ancestors' pain while marveling at their endurance, and recognize that resilience as part of their legacy."--The New York Times

"Riot Baby bursts at the seams of story with so much fire, passion and power that in the end it turns what we call a narrative into something different altogether."--Marlon James

"Onyebuchi has woven a story as uplifting as it is heartbreaking, an epic ode to the future and past, tiny acts of resistance, love, and the wild unstoppable sweep of revolution."--Daniel José Older

"Equal parts provocative and riveting, Riot Baby is what all speculative fiction should strive to be: wholly captivating."--Salon

"At its core, Riot Baby's about sibling love, broken communities, loss, sacrifice and harnessing one's power to break free. . . . An experience and an absolute must-read."--FIYAH

About the Author

Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of the young adult novel Beasts Made of Night, which won the Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African, its sequel, Crown of Thunder, and War Girls. His novella Riot Baby, a finalist for the Hugo, the Nebula, the Locus, the Ignyte, and the NAACP Image Awards, won the New England Book Award for Fiction and an ALA Alex Award. He holds a B.A. from Yale, a M.F.A. in screenwriting from the Tisch School for the Arts, a Master's degree in droit économique from Sciences Po, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. His fiction has appeared in Panverse Three, Asimov's Science Fiction, Obsidian, Omenana Magazine, Uncanny, and Lightspeed. His non-fiction has appeared in Tor.com, Nowhere Magazine, the Oxford University Press blog, and the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, among other places.