A sci-fi imagining of life in America's penultimate chapter: Montreal-born, NY-based writer Charlotte Graham's debut novel, a work of experimental fiction, follows a sweeping group of characters in America's near future as they live and die under the threat of a new kind of deadly bomb called the Peacemaker.
A new kind of bomb is being built.
A girl grows up to destroy herself. A cattle farmer runs for president. A phantom haunts Western Massachusetts. A neuroscientist plays god. A housewife becomes a test subject. An activist group becomes a terrorist cell. The American Empire enters its penultimate chapter.
Though the scientists forging the bomb don't know it, the Peacemaker will be the end of us. But first, the fog settles. We are preoccupied with falling in love; buying an election; finding something to eat. From Montreal to Berlin, Manhattan to outer space, we are busy living and dying. Some of us are ghosts already.
A bittersweet elegy exploring secret desires, unspeakable thoughts, and disgusting impulses, Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars studies how decisions are made under unbearable pressure, how power is created and destroyed, and how—sometimes—we are subject to forces even greater than ourselves.
With original illustrations by the author.
Charlotte Graham (born in Montreal, lives in New York City) is a writer, artist, and caseworker.
