Book Twenty 2014: 

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Orwell’s 1984 is one of my favourite books sever since I read it as a teenager and I’ve read it a fair few times over the years. I think if you’re doing dystopia / “here’s where the world is heading in a handcart” it has few, if any, peers.

Imagine my surprise when I was reading something last year that suggested Orwell has “taken inspiration” from a 1921 Russian book called “We”.

Honestly? I can see where tracts of 1984 had their origin points even if the worlds depicted and the way the story goes are radically different but this is a very readable and occasionally beautiful (if a bit wandery in chapters) story of a future gleaming glass city that resembles Airstrip One in ideology only.

Not a patch on 1984 but a fascinating companion piece if dystopias are your bag.