The Electric Kingdom

Etymologies

Years ago, long before the narration of her father turned unreliable, dissolving like one of those Sweet N Lows in his favorite stale black tea, Nico would climb into his armchair and sit in his lap as he read The Phantom Tollbooth or Tuck Everlasting or any one of the hundreds of books in the cozy-dank Farmhouse library, and even now, even here, she could smell her father s beard, feel the glow of flames from the fireplace, hear the soothing salivary tones of his reading voice, and Nico wondered if perhaps that was life after life: not a physical place, but a loop of some former time in which a person, after death, was allowed to relive over and over again. There, in a story, in her father s armchair in her father s arms Nico hoped that was the afterlife.

She supposed she would know soon enough.

Constellations

Nico stared into fire. Beside her, Harry s breathing had long ago fallen into time with hers, and she thought that one could hardly call them two separate entities, that at some point between yesterday and today, she and her dog had consolidated into a single, cosmically connected creature of survival. Maybe this telepathic bond had been there all along, lying dormant below the surface; maybe it took leaving the Farmhouse, entering the wild, to coax it out.

All around, the trees were thick: every few feet, the base of a trunk exploded from the earth, rose up into the sky where branches reached like arms to hold hands with other branches, tree-sisters and tree-brothers seeking touch, listening for words of comfort in the dark night. I am here. You are not alone.

The thought of trees talking to each other warmed Nico s stomach.
She pulled a pen from her bag, held the back of her hand up to the firelight. There, in the space between her thumb and forefinger, was a single line in ink. Carefully, she drew a second line beside it. According to the map, the Merrimack River ran over a hundred miles from New Hampshire to

David Arnold lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his (lovely) wife and (boisterous) son. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Kids of Appetite, Mosquitoland, and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik. His books have been translated into a dozen languages.

Praise for The Electric Kingdom

This is a story about storytellers, and David Arnold is among the best. The Electric Kingdom is an epic postapocalyptic tale where humanity is louder than a swarm of Flies, and hope radiates in the bleakest of places. Fearless writing and a remarkable cast of characters will send readers on an unforgettable journey. ADAM SILVERA, New York Times bestselling author of They Both Die at the End
 
With luminous compassion and ceaseless invention, Arnold has built a postapocalyptic nesting doll of a tale, full of tricky resonances and moments of grace. All the pieces of this fascinating, ambitious book work together like the chambers of some great heart. I can t wait for teen readers to discover it and suspect it was written just for them. MELISSA ALBERT, New York Times bestselling author of The Hazel Wood
 
Utterly unique and genre-busting, The Electric Kingdom is David Arnold at his best. I was left in awe by the stunning prose, the challenging philosophical questions, and the masterful puzzle of a plot. The moment I nished, I immediately wanted to read it again. JASMINE WARGA, Newbery Honor winning author of Other Words for Home

"An intricate piece of high-concept sci-fi . . . carried by crystalline prose, which echoes like poetry, towards a genuinely astonishing and moving conclusion. Accessible, sophisticated, and immensely satisfying." Booklist (starred review)
 
"An absorbing read with well-realized characters and beautiful writing, this novel will appeal to readers of science fantasy such as N.K. Jemisin s Broken Earth trilogy." SLJ (starred review)

"Particularly poignant Arnold brings all the classic elements of a dystopia here and twists them up with mind-bending dramatics of time travel, making room for harrowing action scenes and deep existential ponderings. Given current circumstances, this makes for a timely and chilling read."