'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin

We, Yevgeny Zamyatin (4.5)

Thanks to my friend, Jill, for giving me this book – which holds the position for longest time on the ‘to read’ list on my Goodreads account! It was worth the wait. Touted as the book Orwell read before writing ‘1984’ it is very original. Written in the 20’s in Russia, though not published until later by a US publishing house, we follow a protagonist living in a post-war future where cities are made of glass (better for mass surveillance), people are referred to as numbers and life is ruled by logic and mathematics. We learn about the workings of the One State through the journal of the main character, D-503. He is a space engineer working on a ship that will help the totalitarian nation expand to other planets. As with all harmonious conforming societies, it only takes one bad apple, so to speak. In D-503’s case, that would be I-330. She manages to insert chaos into his mathematically perfect life and makes him question everything. ‘We’ definitely fits between ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’ as a must for all Sci-Fi lovers.