London 2030. When a postman knocks on his door, the news he delivers will cause 70-year-old Anthony Pablo Rubens to reflect on all the sadnesses and joys of the past, while he begins to prepare for the surprises of the future.
The past still revolves around the moment in the summer of 1984 when young Anthony first realized he had fallen in love.
The present is a Kafkaesque nightmare worse than Orwell's 1984, "a hideous world where people don't need to be watched by Big Brother." It's a world that Anthony has mostly shut his eyes to, but which suddenly he is forced to confront.
And the future now encompasses the mystery, and excitement, and dread of a day as an exhibit at the National People's Museum.
A dystopian political satire, The Coldness of Objects is also a story of loss, and of different kinds of love.
"A gay man questions Britain's repressive new political regime in this satirical, speculative novel...
Cacoyannis tells a story that feels both fresh and alarming in how it identifies and amplifies concerns of our time, as when it shows life becoming anodyne as a consequence of surveillance... For the author, love is the antidote to a complicit society rendered indifferent to authoritarian rule... elegant and tenderly observant prose captures how individual lives interconnect... Cacoyannis has written a thoroughly gripping novel, using the rhetoric of a real-life pandemic to fashion a chilling vision of an abnormal 'new-normal' to come.
An intriguing, timely, and terrifying portent of life after Covid-19."
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"a small jewel, filled with exquisite language, intimate human characters and poignant drama... The Coldness of Objects doesn’t lecture or rant. It captures the terror of authoritarianism and mob mentality but remains a literary novel—one which uses words magically to paint a portrait of an individual caught in the constraints of life and struggling with learning what is meaningful while protecting his own vulnerabilities, an individual who must decide what to do when society says no to his individuality. It’s a story and a deep, beautiful and unforgettable one." Casey Dorman - Lost Coast Review
