My Brother the Messiah - by Martin Vopenka (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

It's 2103 and Earth is baking. Scientists attempt to cool down the planet. With the coming of rain, a messiah is born.

Eli is a technophobe haunted by premonitions of what will come. His strange magnetism draws many to his cause. For his brother Marek, Eli has always been a messiah. After his short and powerful life, Eli's most haunting prediction comes to pass: children stop being born.

Thirty-five years later, only The Followers of Eli bear children. Marek leads his commune under the glare of the entire world, and recounts Eli's story to his lover, Natalia. When she is snatched from him, Marek suspects both the followers and outside forces are to blame. Lessons from Marek's past and revelations from his present inspire one final journey in his brother's footsteps.

My Brother the Messiah explores spirituality in the twilight of human civilization and presents a dark, vivid future of our world.

Review Quotes

'Well worth your time. Vopenka tells a dystopian tale about hope amid chaos, and about the drawbacks, and the consolations, of faith.' - James Lovegrove, The Financial Times

'Vopěnka has yet again produced a book that explores many pressing issues of the near future. Highly readable, beautiful and terrifying at the same time, it presents to us a future that may not be as distant as it may seem at first sight." - Eliska Prokopováaacute;, iLiteratura

'Rivals Orwell's 1984' - Digitimes

'Weaves a gloomy, gripping, spiritual spell all of its own.'- Simon Ings, The Times ^{(where it was selected as Science Fiction Book of the Month)}

'My Brother the Messiah presents a nightmarish vision of a future where human selfishness has all but destroyed the Earth, and the only apparent hope is either in religion or science. Czech author Martin Vopenka tackles complex contemporary issues in his writing. My Brother the Messiah is no exception-a quietly profound story that moves slowly at a deliberate pace and stays compelling. It presents a subtle and provocative meditation on the nature of faith and hope in the face of despair and chaos.' - Tessa Chudy, Aurealis

'Vopenka's voice is Czech yet global and his prose compelling.' - Jewish Renaissance

'Vopenka creates a dynamic and vivid account of societies in complete free-fall... chillingly beautiful in its descriptive violence. This is an Acts of the Apostles for a post-Christian Europe, ...Yet the author is not a Czech Nikos Kazantzakis imposing wholesale an aged scriptural drama onto a current or future society. The book's ending proves that conclusively. It is satisfyingly uncertain and unexpected: troubling and problematic certainly, but also with a candle's flicker of warm comfort.' - Paul Simon, Morning Star

'A wryly humorous, disturbing novel that refuses the pitfalls of either lazy rationalism or unthinking faith.' - The British Science Fiction Association