By Mat Johnson, Philip H. Knight Chair, creative writing and English

A sharp allegorical novel, Invisible Things involves a hidden human civilization, a crucial election, and a mysterious invisible force that must not be named. Johnson’s first novel in seven years is his most ambitious and prescient yet and asks the question, to what lengths will some people go to cope with a reality so absurd, it defies reason entirely? The story takes readers to New Roanoke, an entire city encased in a bubble on Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, and populated entirely by alien abductees. For those in power, New Roanoke is a utopia. But for the rest of the population, it’s a city defined by wealth inequality and governed by a predatory elite, with an economy built on heedless consumption. And it happens to be terrorized by an invisible entity so disturbing that no one even dares acknowledge its existence. 

Penguin Random House, 2022