The Facility
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Review
`A heart-rate-destabilising novel about the outbreak of a sinister new disease, the authorities' reactions and a pair of would-be whistleblowers . . . This is one fiendish, impressive book' --David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet
`The Facility nails the reader's attention from the off . . . Apart from his storytelling skills, Lelic has two potent weapons in his armoury, his dialogue which is scabrous and flint-edged and his characters . . . An unputdownable thriller' --Daily Express
`A startling vision of totalitarian Britain . . . Lelic creates a magnificent sense of place and deftly maintains the pace of his thriller plot . . . Lelic's crystalline prose is frequently utterly seductive and his compassion deeply moving.' (Fiction of the Week, four stars) --Metro
`Lelic stormed on to the literary scene in January 2010 with Rupture, his gripping debut . . . Lelic's follow-up proves he's no one-hit wonder . . . Lelic has demonstrated again his talent as a storyteller, keeping his prose fast-paced and always giving his characters distinct, believable voices. With The Facility he finds a niche as an author of solid, engrossing thrillers who could turn out to be a serial bestseller' (Four stars) --Time Out
`An elegant crime thriller about a falsely imprisoned man and his estranged wife, intent on finding the truth. They collide with a journalist investigating a secret government facility hidden in the countryside. Topical and fast-paced' (Top 3 must-read)
--Red magazine
`Lelic has written a thriller for our times, whose plot is driven by a political machine that's oiled and ready in the real world . . . The plot grips not because of action scenes (although there are a few) but because we live in a world where feelings of mild guilt often slip into paranoia. This is Kafka meets Orwell in contemporary England' --Sunday Herald
`Arthur is an unremarkable man, a dentist who's separated from his wife, so he can't understand what he's doing in a top-secret facility where most of the other inmates seem to be infected with a virulent disease. With his wife convincing a reporter to look into his disappearance, this is a classic story of a race against time' --The Sunday Times
`Clever, well-paced and with a clear message, this is an ambitious and important novel with shades of George Orwell's 1984 at its core' --Edinburgh Evening News
`A home-grown, high concept thriller . . . [The Facility] is set in a dystopian near-future, where the British government, seemingly through popular choice, has invoked unprecedented security powers . . . All in all, this is a deeply unsettling read.' (Book of the Week) --Daily Mirror
`Lelic's second novel is grander in scale than his intimate and claustrophobic debut, Rupture, but his ability to create an atmosphere of tension and foreboding fits just as neatly into this frighteningly believable conspiracy thriller' (8 out of 10)
--Liverpool Post
`The book stands out for being resolutely unsensational, deriving its shock and horror from the truthlessness of the agents of government and the grim degree to which the "good" characters, as well as the reader, become aware of their powerless fragility before the state. Lelic's prose is spare, concise and fast-paced. The horror unfolds in a measured and inevitable flow, with the occasional surprising line of economically descriptive beauty. The Facility is an accomplished example of its type. And, in a world increasingly sceptical of the intentions of government, a book which is thoroughly of our time' --Morning Star
`Lelic's second novel (the follow-up to his well-received Rupture, about a school massacre) follows journalist Tom Clarke as he investigates the fate of several people arrested under repressive new anti-terror legislation and taken to a mysterious government "facility" . . . This Orwellian set-up allows for several scenes of nightmarish strangeness . . . Lelic's feverish imagination and expert plotting are qualities that suggest a future as a novelist' --Observer
`Vivid and compelling' --Big Issue
`The facility of the title is a mysterious prison to which seemingly innocent British citizens are renditioned . . . As his first novel Rupture showed, Lelic can plot like a demon and write wonderful dialogue . . . Lelic has real talent' --Guardian
`A journalist gets involved when ordinary people are "disappeared" and incarcerated in a secret government facility where they are subjected to medical experiments. Already-existing terrorism legislation makes this story an unpleasantly plausible warning'
--Literary Review
`A heart-rate-destabilising novel about the outbreak of a sinister new disease, the authorities' reactions and a pair of would-be whistleblowers . . . This is one fiendish, impressive book' --David Mitchell
`An elegant crime thriller about a falsely imprisoned man and his estranged wife, intent on finding the truth. They collide with a journalist investigating a secret government facility hidden in the countryside. Topical and fast-paced' (`Top 3 must-read') --Red magazine
`A classic story of a race against time' --The Sunday Times
`A home-grown, high concept thriller . . . [The Facility] is set in a dystopian near-future, where the British government, seemingly through popular choice, has invoked unprecedented security powers . . . All in all, this is a deeply unsettling read' (Book of the Week) --Daily Mirror
'Set in a near future dystopia, Lelic's thriller follows a man who is sent to a government camp where prisoners are used in medical trials.'
--The Times
'Simon Lelic evokes a wonderful sense of place and maintains a taut pace as he examines how easily individuals become casualties in pursuit of the "greater good'
--Metro
'With his fragile, sympathetic characters, Lelic has the same ability to make us look at the society we're creating as John le Carre'
--Independent
`The Facility nails the reader's attention from the off . . . Apart from his storytelling skills, Lelic has two potent weapons in his armoury, his dialogue which is scabrous and flint-edged and his characters . . . An unputdownable thriller' --Daily Express
`A startling vision of totalitarian Britain . . . Lelic creates a magnificent sense of place and deftly maintains the pace of his thriller plot . . . Lelic's crystalline prose is frequently utterly seductive and his compassion deeply moving.' (Fiction of the Week, four stars) --Metro
`Lelic stormed on to the literary scene in January 2010 with Rupture, his gripping debut . . . Lelic's follow-up proves he's no one-hit wonder . . . Lelic has demonstrated again his talent as a storyteller, keeping his prose fast-paced and always giving his characters distinct, believable voices. With The Facility he finds a niche as an author of solid, engrossing thrillers who could turn out to be a serial bestseller' (Four stars) --Time Out
`An elegant crime thriller about a falsely imprisoned man and his estranged wife, intent on finding the truth. They collide with a journalist investigating a secret government facility hidden in the countryside. Topical and fast-paced' (Top 3 must-read)
--Red magazine
`Lelic has written a thriller for our times, whose plot is driven by a political machine that's oiled and ready in the real world . . . The plot grips not because of action scenes (although there are a few) but because we live in a world where feelings of mild guilt often slip into paranoia. This is Kafka meets Orwell in contemporary England' --Sunday Herald
`Arthur is an unremarkable man, a dentist who's separated from his wife, so he can't understand what he's doing in a top-secret facility where most of the other inmates seem to be infected with a virulent disease. With his wife convincing a reporter to look into his disappearance, this is a classic story of a race against time' --The Sunday Times
`Clever, well-paced and with a clear message, this is an ambitious and important novel with shades of George Orwell's 1984 at its core' --Edinburgh Evening News
`A home-grown, high concept thriller . . . [The Facility] is set in a dystopian near-future, where the British government, seemingly through popular choice, has invoked unprecedented security powers . . . All in all, this is a deeply unsettling read.' (Book of the Week) --Daily Mirror
`Lelic's second novel is grander in scale than his intimate and claustrophobic debut, Rupture, but his ability to create an atmosphere of tension and foreboding fits just as neatly into this frighteningly believable conspiracy thriller' (8 out of 10)
--Liverpool Post
`The book stands out for being resolutely unsensational, deriving its shock and horror from the truthlessness of the agents of government and the grim degree to which the "good" characters, as well as the reader, become aware of their powerless fragility before the state. Lelic's prose is spare, concise and fast-paced. The horror unfolds in a measured and inevitable flow, with the occasional surprising line of economically descriptive beauty. The Facility is an accomplished example of its type. And, in a world increasingly sceptical of the intentions of government, a book which is thoroughly of our time' --Morning Star
`Lelic's second novel (the follow-up to his well-received Rupture, about a school massacre) follows journalist Tom Clarke as he investigates the fate of several people arrested under repressive new anti-terror legislation and taken to a mysterious government "facility" . . . This Orwellian set-up allows for several scenes of nightmarish strangeness . . . Lelic's feverish imagination and expert plotting are qualities that suggest a future as a novelist' --Observer
`Vivid and compelling' --Big Issue
`The facility of the title is a mysterious prison to which seemingly innocent British citizens are renditioned . . . As his first novel Rupture showed, Lelic can plot like a demon and write wonderful dialogue . . . Lelic has real talent' --Guardian
`A journalist gets involved when ordinary people are "disappeared" and incarcerated in a secret government facility where they are subjected to medical experiments. Already-existing terrorism legislation makes this story an unpleasantly plausible warning'
--Literary Review
`A heart-rate-destabilising novel about the outbreak of a sinister new disease, the authorities' reactions and a pair of would-be whistleblowers . . . This is one fiendish, impressive book' --David Mitchell
`An elegant crime thriller about a falsely imprisoned man and his estranged wife, intent on finding the truth. They collide with a journalist investigating a secret government facility hidden in the countryside. Topical and fast-paced' (`Top 3 must-read') --Red magazine
`A classic story of a race against time' --The Sunday Times
`A home-grown, high concept thriller . . . [The Facility] is set in a dystopian near-future, where the British government, seemingly through popular choice, has invoked unprecedented security powers . . . All in all, this is a deeply unsettling read' (Book of the Week) --Daily Mirror
'Set in a near future dystopia, Lelic's thriller follows a man who is sent to a government camp where prisoners are used in medical trials.'
--The Times
'Simon Lelic evokes a wonderful sense of place and maintains a taut pace as he examines how easily individuals become casualties in pursuit of the "greater good'
--Metro
'With his fragile, sympathetic characters, Lelic has the same ability to make us look at the society we're creating as John le Carre'
--Independent
Product Description
The startling second novel from the critically lauded author of Rupture
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
From the moment you begin The Facility, you're drawn into Simon Lelic's world of damaged characters fighting against the inpenetrable processes that have grown up around them. The narrative unfolds from three viewpoints, and for moments throughout the book you think you know which way the story is going. But then Lelic yanks it in a different direction and you're left breathless and guessing again.
On the surface, The Facility's main mission is to comment on how the actions of a future government have subtly shifted expectations so the characters accept restrictions on their lives that they should never have agreed to. But underneath it's the characters themselves that prove to be most fascinating - whether it's a reluctant crusader harbouring a guilty desire, a control freak who is secretly floundering, or an upstanding member of society coping with being thrown into an alien underworld.
Let's get this straight - The Facility is a bleak novel. Without having to resort to showy scenes, Lelic slowy strips you of your hope, and then makes things doubly worse when you turn the page. The experience of reading it is suffocating, but it is this feeling that makes The Facility work so well. You're not just reading about the characters - Lelic lets you feel what they're feeling through focused prose that manages to be shocking and charming, sometimes in the same sentence.
Rupture - Lelic's first novel - put him on the map. His second novel demonstrates that he doesn't need a map: He's created his own world and is challenging you to visit instead.
On the surface, The Facility's main mission is to comment on how the actions of a future government have subtly shifted expectations so the characters accept restrictions on their lives that they should never have agreed to. But underneath it's the characters themselves that prove to be most fascinating - whether it's a reluctant crusader harbouring a guilty desire, a control freak who is secretly floundering, or an upstanding member of society coping with being thrown into an alien underworld.
Let's get this straight - The Facility is a bleak novel. Without having to resort to showy scenes, Lelic slowy strips you of your hope, and then makes things doubly worse when you turn the page. The experience of reading it is suffocating, but it is this feeling that makes The Facility work so well. You're not just reading about the characters - Lelic lets you feel what they're feeling through focused prose that manages to be shocking and charming, sometimes in the same sentence.
Rupture - Lelic's first novel - put him on the map. His second novel demonstrates that he doesn't need a map: He's created his own world and is challenging you to visit instead.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Simon Lelic seems determined to make me a fan of dark thrillers. His previous book, Rupture, was the first of this genre I can ever recall reading, and after being surprised by how easily it gripped me, I couldn't resist buying his follow-up as soon as it hit the stands. This despite the fact I knew it would be a stressful, at times distrurbing, experience!
The Facility did not disappoint. The story is gripping and thoroughly engrossing, with a faster pace and more suspense even than Rupture, and kept me turning the pages at rapid fire speed. All the while I knew the plot was likely to get more sinister with each page. I found myself rooting for the two main protagonists even while knowing there was unlikely to be a tidy solution to the alarming yet somehow believable state of affairs they have found themselves in the midst of. The internal dilemmas of the warden of the facility also present an interesting character study as they unfold, and the reader can't help but feel pathos towards him even while he presides over what is in effect a house of horrors.
It's looking like another homerun for one of Britain's most intriguing new novelists.
The Facility did not disappoint. The story is gripping and thoroughly engrossing, with a faster pace and more suspense even than Rupture, and kept me turning the pages at rapid fire speed. All the while I knew the plot was likely to get more sinister with each page. I found myself rooting for the two main protagonists even while knowing there was unlikely to be a tidy solution to the alarming yet somehow believable state of affairs they have found themselves in the midst of. The internal dilemmas of the warden of the facility also present an interesting character study as they unfold, and the reader can't help but feel pathos towards him even while he presides over what is in effect a house of horrors.
It's looking like another homerun for one of Britain's most intriguing new novelists.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like many other reviewers on these pages I was eager to read The Facility having loved Simon Lelic's first novel Rupture and I was not disappointed. While different in scope and subject to its forerunner Lelic once again unflinchingly tackles some of the thorniest issues facing modern society. The Facility, which is set in the near future, depicts a nation in which stringent anti-terrorism legislation is regularly used to curb the civil liberties of a populace all too willing to shrug its shoulders and accept the "necessity" of such draconian measures.
The plot is darkly gripping throughout, while the central characters are all briliantly drawn. The tortured Henry Graves is a particularly strong character and, as with Rupture, Lelic demonstrates an uncanny ability to garner sympathy for those that on face value do not deserve it.
Although some have criticised Lelic for not continuing with the innovative narrative style of Rupture, which gained him so many plaudits, I am glad that he resisted the temptation to follow what was obviously a successful formula. Lelic's storytelling is strong enough to stand alone and this pacy, high-brow thiller does not need technical trickery to maintain the reader's emotional involvement until the very last page.
With his taut writing style and elegant, often poetic prose, Lelic is rapidly turning into one of the nation's finest new authors.
A 1984 for the i-pod generation!
The plot is darkly gripping throughout, while the central characters are all briliantly drawn. The tortured Henry Graves is a particularly strong character and, as with Rupture, Lelic demonstrates an uncanny ability to garner sympathy for those that on face value do not deserve it.
Although some have criticised Lelic for not continuing with the innovative narrative style of Rupture, which gained him so many plaudits, I am glad that he resisted the temptation to follow what was obviously a successful formula. Lelic's storytelling is strong enough to stand alone and this pacy, high-brow thiller does not need technical trickery to maintain the reader's emotional involvement until the very last page.
With his taut writing style and elegant, often poetic prose, Lelic is rapidly turning into one of the nation's finest new authors.
A 1984 for the i-pod generation!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Governments BAD Journalists GOOD
Like most other reviewers, I enjoyed Lelic's first novel, despite his tendency to use stereotypes: the sexist cops, the dumb jock of a gym teacher. Read more
Published 5 months ago by annwiddecombe
Well-written, but let down by the implausibility of the plot
Simon Lelic's novel is about a near-future Britain where a public health emergency collides with the draconian powers granted to the authorities in the name of the prevention of... Read more
Published 7 months ago by S. P. Long
Familiar territory, but well done
A sinister government establishment, The Facility, has been opened in the Cornish countryside, the purpose of which is to receive a category of detainees who need to be isolated... Read more
Published 15 months ago by A Common Reader
Promising if a little uneven thriller
This promising thriller by Simon Lelic starts off with what seems to be a Guantanamo style plot. Arthur Priestley - a dentist from Ealing - is not the most likely person to have... Read more
Published 15 months ago by J. Coulton
Tense and disturbing
This is an intense read. The facility, as it is called is menacing and uncomfortably plausible. How frighteningly easy it is for an innocent person to be caught up in something... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Pen pal
You can check out any time you want but you can never leave...
Simon Lelic's first novel, Rupture, was such a breath of fresh air last year that as soon as I got his second I started reading. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Annabel Gaskell
Absolutely LOVE this book
I was really looking forward to reading this book after enjoying Rapture so much and I can honestly say, the wait was well worth it. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mrs. H. E. Hallett
Wonderful thriller, but not as good as Rupture
Rupture was one of my favourite books of 2010 and I am sad that it didn't receive the attention it deserved. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Jackie
Unlimited detention without trial abused
Second novels can be tricky things - particularly when the first is as strong as Simon Lelic's Rupture was. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Ripple
An outstanding 2nd novel!
Once again Simon Lelic has produced an engrossing novel which enticingly interweaves contemporary moral issues with a fast-paced and action packed narrative. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Hil Brown
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