The Unit
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What a striking, remarkable book - one of the best I've read in a long time. --Frank Huyler, author of Right of Thirst and The Laws of Invisible Things
Product Description
When Dorrit Wegner turned fifty, the government transferred her to a state-of-the-art facility where she can live out her days in comfort. Her apartment is furnished to her tastes, her meals expertly served, and all at the very reasonable non-negotiable price of one cardiopulmonary system. Once an outsider without family, derided by a society bent on productivity, Dorrit finds within The Unit the company of kindred spirits and a dignity conferred by 'use' in medical tests. But when Dorrit also finds love, her peaceful submission is blown apart and she must fight to escape before her 'final donation'.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Unfortunately, this book shares its title with the American television series of the same name so just typing the title into amazon's search engine doesn't bring up the book on the first three pages of searching. This is, I believe, a failure on amazon's part to get books of the same name to also appear on the first page or two. Hope amazon reads this and takes note.
This is a wonderful book in it's writing and translation. No excess words yet everything is described perfectly to give you the sleek Scandinavian feel. Just how many ways can language be stripped to its essentials to make it almost perfectly expressive? The topic is timely yet terrifying if you are anywhere near the age of 50. It cuts too close to the bone to make it comfortable given today's growing tendency to see older persons as dispensible. And that is precisely what this book deals with - the dispensibility of persons and the harvesting of organs plus almost Nazi-like experimentation on single, childless men and women once they reach the age of 50.
This is a great book and should scare the living daylights out of you. A parable for our time? Maybe. But certainly well worth reading and sharing with all the older folks in your life. Don't share it with young people though. We don't want to give them any ideas about our future, do we?
This is a wonderful book in it's writing and translation. No excess words yet everything is described perfectly to give you the sleek Scandinavian feel. Just how many ways can language be stripped to its essentials to make it almost perfectly expressive? The topic is timely yet terrifying if you are anywhere near the age of 50. It cuts too close to the bone to make it comfortable given today's growing tendency to see older persons as dispensible. And that is precisely what this book deals with - the dispensibility of persons and the harvesting of organs plus almost Nazi-like experimentation on single, childless men and women once they reach the age of 50.
This is a great book and should scare the living daylights out of you. A parable for our time? Maybe. But certainly well worth reading and sharing with all the older folks in your life. Don't share it with young people though. We don't want to give them any ideas about our future, do we?
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Translated by Marlaine Delargy.
The Unit is the first novel by Ninni Holmqvist, a translator who has previously published three collections of short stories. It is superb: assured, measured, controlled, human and written in that deceptively simple, easy-reading style that draws the reader into very dark depths without consciously being aware of the direction.
The bare bones of the plot are straightforward. Dorrit, a single woman aged about 50, finds herself institutionalised - voluntarily but in a sinister fashion. The titular unit is a pleasant place in which to live, with landscaped gardens, library, art gallery and many other facilities, although all the residents are under constant surveillance.
Although it isn't hard to guess the purpose of the unit, the way in which the nightmare gradually unfolds is brilliantly told. There are no dramatics or exciting set-pieces, and because we see everything from the point of view of the residents rather than the staff, and hence in human and emotional terms, the impact of the fate of Dorrit's circle of friends is poignant.
Like all good novels, there are layers of allegory. The people who live in the unit are childless, therefore in their previous lives have tended to devote their energies towards creative, intellectual pursuits. The unit is therefore full of authors, artists, and others who are continuing to contribute constructively to society in the hope that their work will be preserved for the future. There are many understated themes running through the novel - satire, social comment, ethics and so on.
The Unit shares its main elements with all good books. It tells an interesting story; has a good plot with a few twists and turns (especially at the end); contains believable characters; is very well written, superbly translated by Marlaine Delargy, who conveys many subtleties so well; and it haunts long after finishing it. The character of the protagonist, Dorrit, as she reflects on her past life and relationships, misses her dog and decides how to handle the amazing situation in which she finds herself half-way through the book, is particularly compelling. I think that populating a novel with a cast of 50- and 60-something characters without children makes for an interestingly unusual view of human behaviour and society, and the background of benign menace provides a sharp antidote to sentimentality.
(A longer version of this review is at my blog Petrona)
The Unit is the first novel by Ninni Holmqvist, a translator who has previously published three collections of short stories. It is superb: assured, measured, controlled, human and written in that deceptively simple, easy-reading style that draws the reader into very dark depths without consciously being aware of the direction.
The bare bones of the plot are straightforward. Dorrit, a single woman aged about 50, finds herself institutionalised - voluntarily but in a sinister fashion. The titular unit is a pleasant place in which to live, with landscaped gardens, library, art gallery and many other facilities, although all the residents are under constant surveillance.
Although it isn't hard to guess the purpose of the unit, the way in which the nightmare gradually unfolds is brilliantly told. There are no dramatics or exciting set-pieces, and because we see everything from the point of view of the residents rather than the staff, and hence in human and emotional terms, the impact of the fate of Dorrit's circle of friends is poignant.
Like all good novels, there are layers of allegory. The people who live in the unit are childless, therefore in their previous lives have tended to devote their energies towards creative, intellectual pursuits. The unit is therefore full of authors, artists, and others who are continuing to contribute constructively to society in the hope that their work will be preserved for the future. There are many understated themes running through the novel - satire, social comment, ethics and so on.
The Unit shares its main elements with all good books. It tells an interesting story; has a good plot with a few twists and turns (especially at the end); contains believable characters; is very well written, superbly translated by Marlaine Delargy, who conveys many subtleties so well; and it haunts long after finishing it. The character of the protagonist, Dorrit, as she reflects on her past life and relationships, misses her dog and decides how to handle the amazing situation in which she finds herself half-way through the book, is particularly compelling. I think that populating a novel with a cast of 50- and 60-something characters without children makes for an interestingly unusual view of human behaviour and society, and the background of benign menace provides a sharp antidote to sentimentality.
(A longer version of this review is at my blog Petrona)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
We are introduced to Dorrit and her journey as she arrives in the Unit and explains how she came to be there. How the people end up in the unit and what their purpose is, what they go through and the people she meets and friendships she makes. Dorrit makes a few special friendships and one develops into something more than she could ever have dreamed of.
I found the book really slow going and to be honest nothing really happened until half way through and even then it wasn't a huge oh my God, it was very gradual. Everything is explained out and we are taken through the daily ritual until some kind of routine is established. The donations and experiments, side effects, the ups and downs and how they get through what they face everyday.
Despite it being slow I actually quite liked the book. The idea is for me totally new, I have never read anything like that before and it stays with you after you finish. The end disappointed me a bit because of how it turned, an unexpected twist but some people may actually like it. If you fancy something different and don't mind it being slow paced it is definitely worth reading, 3/5 for me.
I found the book really slow going and to be honest nothing really happened until half way through and even then it wasn't a huge oh my God, it was very gradual. Everything is explained out and we are taken through the daily ritual until some kind of routine is established. The donations and experiments, side effects, the ups and downs and how they get through what they face everyday.
Despite it being slow I actually quite liked the book. The idea is for me totally new, I have never read anything like that before and it stays with you after you finish. The end disappointed me a bit because of how it turned, an unexpected twist but some people may actually like it. If you fancy something different and don't mind it being slow paced it is definitely worth reading, 3/5 for me.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant and heartrending
I chose this for our book club because I used to read a lot of feminist science fiction and the only author we'd read who falls into that category was Margaret Atwood. Read more
Published 2 hours ago by Ailsa M. Hollinshead
The Unit
This is a dark and disturbing novel about a future where people who do not produce children are seen as redundant and are used for medical research and organ donation. Read more
Published 1 day ago by S Riaz
Quiet and slow moving, but powerful for all that
It would be easy to imagine from the premise that this book would be some sort of action thriller along the lines of The Island [DVD] [2005] - after all, this is about people being... Read more
Published 1 month ago by tiggrie AKA Sarah
The Unit
I think I'm going to find it difficult to say much about this book without spoilers, but I shall try my best. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lucybird
As dark as they come
The Unit by the Swedish author Ninni Holmqvist is a dystopian novel that describes a world born, one would dare say, out of a Kafkaesque nightmare. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lakis Fourouklas
Hauntingly beautiful
One of my favourite dystopian novels is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and The Unit echoes some of the former's darker themes. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lovely Treez
An alarming and clinically efficient way of ending your life
I was drawn to read The Unit because I was intrigued to see what Swedish writer Ninni Holmqvist would make of the organ donation theme, so well-covered in Kazuo Ishiguro's book... Read more
Published 4 months ago by A Common Reader
Gripping read...
Fantastic story that had me hooked from the first paragraph.Very well written and the pace was fast enough to keep you in suspense whilst allowing enough time to savour the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by taaliah
Hang on to your organs...
Throughout the Twentieth Century apocolyptic and dystopian futures have been explored through numerous books, films, plays, and tv shows. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Millennium Peregrine
Brilliant novel
The Unit was the very first of 36 novels I have bought and read on my Kindle, and I still think about it often. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Philanty
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