Published in 2025 (first published 2006)
441 pages
Andrea Hairston is a Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith College, as well as the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre. Her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, Stage West, and on Public Radio and Television. She has received many awards for her writing and directing, including an NEA Grant to Playwrights, a Ford Foundation grant to collaborate with Senegalese Master Drummer massamba Diop, and a Shubert Fellowship for Playwrighting.
What is this book about?
A science fiction tale of global warfare and the people who profit from it, Mindscape was Hairston’s extraordinary debut novel, nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and short-listed for the Otherwise Award.
The world has been divided by the Barrier. For 115 years this extraterrestrial, epidimensional entity has divided the earth into warring zones. Power-hungry politicians, gangsters, and spiritual fundamentalists are determined to thwart a potential treaty to end the internal wars.
When the treaty’s architect is assassinated, her protegee, Elleni, a talented renegade and one of the few able to negotiate the Barrier, is forced to take up her mantle.
Now Elleni and a motley crew of allies risk their lives to make the treaty work.
Can they repair their fractured world before the Barrier devours them completely?
