Description
It is 2035, and the United States is no longer a democracy. There have been no presidential elections since 2024; and according to the New Constitution, none are required. The President is a godlike figure; his party controls not only what people do, but what they say—and even what they think. Secret police come at night, arresting dissidents; people who dare to disagree with the government disappear, never to be seen again.
The environment is polluted and poverty is widespread. History has been erased or rewritten. Society is segregated, starting from early childhood. Public schools provide kids with eight years of free education, where they are indoctrinated to believe everything the government says—but are not taught much else.
Fourteen-year-old Eric is privileged to be a white middle-class boy living with his mom and dad who were born in this country. Like any teenager, he is grappling with first love, friendships, decisions about future education and career. But, once he approaches middle school graduation, his small secure world begins shaking and rumbling, and his loving parents, hard as they try, can no longer protect him from the brutality of the real world.
Does the novel depict our not-so-remote future? Or is it just a weird fantasy, a horror movie? Only time will tell…
Raisa Borovsky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and immigrated to the United States in 1991, a few months before the collapse of the Soviet Union. She met her American husband in Washington, DC, and together they lived — and traveled extensively — in a number of countries of Africa and South-East Asia. Always an adventurer, Raisa has worked as a computer programmer, editorial staff member of a Russian Jewish magazine (which was printed in Israel and then secretly delivered to Moscow), Hebrew teacher, and later, after her emigration from Russia — as a librarian, English as a Second Language instructor, elementary school teacher, yoga instructor, and mental health counselor.
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…A chilling dystopian novel of the near future, Raisa Borovsky’s 2035 tells its edgy and sad story of loyalty, fear, and difficult choices mainly from the point of view of a largely indoctrinated teenager. The novel underlines dangerous tendencies in contemporary US politics, education, and spectacle, highlights the human capacity for bravery under difficult circumstances, and includes original touches, such as imagining Canada as our greatest enemy and making it dangerous even for a kid to use more words than the 496 words that comprise the entirety of the authoritarian President’s vocabulary.
— Bernard Horn, author of “Love’s Fingerprints”, and “Facing the Fires: Conversations with A. B. Yehoshua”
…If a book were written with a plot matching the turmoil of our current times, it would be thought of as ludicrous. But Raisa Borovsky unflinchingly holds up a mirror to our “complicated world,” particularly to life in America, by projecting the restrictive future it potentially holds in store for both young and old. She weaves a tale that confronts blind loyalty, fear of Big Brother, and even government-imposed vocabulary, such that those of us living through today’s nightmare don’t see this book as a tale at all, but an inevitable trajectory if we allow the repression to continue. A combination wake-up call and warning, 2035 leaves us realizing that the future is already knocking—or rather, banging—on our doors.
— Judy Kivia, author of “Atlanta in Your Pocket”
…Through the alternating perspectives of Eric and Walter, Raisa Borovsky explores a foreboding reality of America under a totalitarian regime. It is easy to empathize with the characters: Eric’s childlike curiosity for what there may be outside of his bubble and Walter’s grim, cruel situation. This book is a fascinating read. It invites us to reflect on the state of our current reality.
— Yelena Lembersky, author of “Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour: Memories of Soviet Russia”
…Raisa Borovsky grew up in the USSR, at a time when speaking your mind could get a person in a lot of trouble. She obtained political refugee status and moved to the United States just a few months before the collapse of the Soviet Union. That experience gives her a very special perspective on political events taking place in the United States today.
In her dystopian novella, “2035”, she imagines an America in which speaking unapproved truths can get one sent to the “gulag” of Alaska, student compositions can only be written using the approved 496 words that make up the “President’s Vocabulary” lexicon, people get arrested for seeking out necessary but unauthorized healthcare, history is rewritten or erased, and Canada is the greatest enemy of the United States.
The image the book presents is chilling. Although many dystopian novels are placed in the distant future, the title of this one, “2035”, suggests that this could be the America we live in less than ten years from now. Is it a cautionary tale or a terrifying glimpse into the future? Only time will tell…
— Judy Bloomberg, author of “Always a Traveler, Never a Tourist: In Search of People and Places on the Road Less Traveled”