The Hickory Stick Bookshop is delighted to welcome author George Packer, who will be here talking about his novel “The Emergency” on Friday, January 2nd at 4.00 pm. The talk will be followed by a book signing.

ABOUT THE BOOK

An empire has collapsed from boredom and loss of faith in itself. In the emergency that follows, youth rebellions of urban Burghers and rural Yeomen embrace radical new ideas of humanity. Doctor Hugo Rustin, chief surgeon at the Imperial College Hospital, is increasingly estranged from his city and his family—from his wife, Annabelle, who finds fulfillment in their changed community, and especially from his teenage daughter, Selva, who has turned against her father’s values. When an incident at the hospital leads to Rustin’s disgrace, he seeks redemption in a quixotic and dangerous journey into the countryside, with Selva as his companion, just as the conflict between Burghers and Yeomen is reaching a crisis.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

George Packer is an award-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic. His books include The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (winner of the National Book Award), The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, and Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century (winner of the Hitchens Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography). He is also the author of two novels and a play, and the editor of a two-volume edition of the essays of George Orwell.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

“Every once in a while, a good dystopian novel strikes the perfect balance… The Emergency is one of these novels. What Packer is trying to tell us about our world is neither too obvious nor too ambiguous… [Packer] approaches all of his characters with empathy, showing readers where we can do better… A well-wrought, colorful and interesting story which asks us urgently to spend time with these questions and figure them out for ourselves–before it’s too late.”
—Claire Rock, The Michigan Daily

“A propulsive Orwellian novel… Packer writes with spare elegance and mounting urgency, and while the depictions of rising class and intergenerational conflicts have clear parallels to real-world matters, the novel never loses its taut dramatic edge. It’s a knockout.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Packer’s gifts are Steinbeckian in the best sense of that term.”
—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

This event is free and open to the public. If you are unable to attend this event, you may reserve signed copies of The Emergency by calling The Hickory Stick Bookshop at (860) 868 0525, or shop our website 24/7 at www.hickorystickbookshop.com.

Hickory Stick Bookshop
2 Green Hill Road
Washington Depot, CT
https://hickorystickbookshop.com/event/2026-01-02/author-talk-book-signing-george-packer