Sandra Newman

An imaginative, feminist, and brilliantly relevant-to-today retelling of Orwell's 1984, from the point of view of Winston Smith's lover, Julia, by critically acclaimed novelist Sandra Newman. Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It's 1984, and Britain (now called Airstrip One) has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and is ruled by an ultra-totalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, everything about this world is as it is in Orwell's 1984. Julia has known no other world than that of Oceania and, until she meets Winston Smith, never imagined one. She's an ideal citizen of Oceania. Cheerfully cynical, believing in nothing and caring not at all about politics, she routinely breaks the rules but also collaborates with the regime whenever necessary. Everyone likes Julia. But when one day, finding herself walking toward Winston in a corridor, she impulsively hands him a note--a potentially suicidal gesture--she comes to realize that she's losing her grip and can no longer safely navigate her world. The passing of that note sets into motion the devastating, unforgettable events of the classic story. Julia takes us on a surprising journey as seen through the eyes of an indestructible young woman trying to survive in Orwell's now-iconic dystopian world, while laying bare our own world in bold and proactive ways, just as the original did almost seventy-five years ago.

Julia

Jemima Scott

Lindsay

It struck Julia that luxury was as much the absence of things as their abundance.

All was false. It was known to be false, but everyone lied about the lies, until no one knew where the lies began and ended.

She didn’t have the freedom to think of what was right. She must do what was safe. It was as Ampleforth had said: one had no choice, one must only live through it as if one had.

Julia quotes

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