The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century

“Its structure is extraordinary. I’ve never read anything like it. It’s as though we’ve raided the filing cabinet of the human resources department on a spaceship where half the workers are humans, and the other half are… I suppose robots, or artificial intelligences contained in humanoid bodies. Each of these people, these spaceship dwellers, have been asked to report on their state of mind to the personnel department, and there’s this wonderful conjunction of fantasy with the most tedious aspects of office life and bureaucracy. It’s so funny.” Read more...

The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist

Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Biographer