{"product_id":"beautiful-shining-people-9781914585647","title":"Beautiful Shining People","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA damaged teenage tech prodigy meets an enigmatic waitress in a tiny Tokyo café, sparking an epic journey across Japan that will change everything, forever ... a captivating, masterful novel with an extraordinary mystery at its heart... \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Set against a tech heavy backdrop \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Shining People\u003c\/i\u003e blooms into an emotional and soulful tale that reckons with the isolation we can all feel as outsiders' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSciFi Now\u003c\/i\u003e Book of the Month\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' That \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Shining People\u003c\/i\u003e isn't just a slipstream novel with pretensions to being literature is in great part down to the deftness and tenderness with which Grothaus draws his central relationship ... to let us explore a world of robots and deepfakes that's just unfamiliar enough to be exotic' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSFX Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e Book of the Month\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' A fascinating exploration of what it means to be human in a world where everything can be faked ... wonderful, insightful and thoughtful' \u003cb\u003eJames Oswald\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- - - - - - - - - - - - - \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis world is anything but ordinary, and it's about to change forever... \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt's our world, but decades into the future... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn ordinary world, where cars drive themselves, drones glide across the sky, and robots work in burger shops. There are two superpowers and a digital Cold War, but all conflicts are safely oceans away. People get up, work, and have dinner. Everything is as it should be... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eExcept for seventeen-year-old John, a tech prodigy from a damaged family, who hides a deeply personal secret. But everything starts to change for him when he enters a tiny café on a cold Tokyo night. A café run by a disgraced sumo wrestler, where a peculiar dog with a spherical head lives, alongside its owner, enigmatic waitress Neotnia... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut Neotnia hides a secret of her own - a secret that will turn John's unhappy life upside down. A secret that will take them from the neon streets of Tokyo to Hiroshima's tragic past to the snowy mountains of Nagano. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA secret that reveals that this world is anything ordinary - and it's about to change forever... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e- - - - - - - - - - - - - \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Poetically written, every word of this adventure leaps off the page with passion. A wonderful and enlightening trip' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Sun\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Cyberpunk meets \u003ci\u003ebildungsroman\u003c\/i\u003e - a real joy' \u003cb\u003eOscar de Muriel\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Exquisite world-building, this book had me invested from the very first page. Vivid plot and irresistible characters and a real tug at the soul ... you'll drown in it' \u003cb\u003eLisa Bradley\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' A life-affirming, epic book about what it is to be human: to live, to dream, to hope, to love ... at a time when we most need reminding of these things' \u003cb\u003eDavid F Ross\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Totally engrossing from the start - the story, characters and settings will linger in your imagination long after you're finished ... truly wonderful' \u003cb\u003eJonathan Whitelaw\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Masterful ... truly breathtaking and achingly beautiful. It builds anticipation and suspense before coming together in a thrilling, captivating conclusion' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Bookbag\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Outstanding! Sci-fi showing how the past might impact on the future ... a glimpse into a (very plausible) terrifying future' \u003cb\u003eMichael J Malone \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat readers are saying...  \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e***** \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' A beautiful, emotional and thought-provoking read' \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' A striking and strange novel - and a searing statement about the dangerously thin lines between utopia and dystopia' \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Just devastatingly beautiful' \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' My book of the year ... no question' \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Masterful storytelling' \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Grothaus has a bewitching ability to stop time in a moment, and then run seemlessly into action with unstoppable momentum' \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e' Succinctly captured the feeling of Japanese fiction. I was very much put in mind of Haruki Murakami or Toshikazu Kawaguchi' \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Orenda Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/10\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781914585647\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 276","brand":"Michael Grothaus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43084254412981,"sku":"9781914585647","price":14.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_bba30b44-b472-46fd-98cd-8cd7de694500.jpg?v=1692113134","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/beautiful-shining-people-9781914585647","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}