City in Flames
At once evocative and propulsive, City in Flames is a love story about two isolated people with a deep yet fragile bond trying to find their way to each other while political disorder engulfs the world around them.
Sara is a graduate student living away from home and struggling to finish her degree. When she kindles a long-distance relationship with Kevin, a disillusioned and apathetic IT worker, the two watch as the city that Kevin lives in, and Sara grew up in, slowly rises up against P., a recently elected populist leader. As protests escalate to a night of devastating fires, the impending political breakdown pushes Sara and Kevin’s relationship to the brink and leaves them torn between the turmoil of the present and a hope for the future, between their longing for connection and their terror of commitment.
City in Flames offers a timely, intimate examination of our political moment, mixing the edge of Exit West and the modern romance of Normal People. It is a story that illuminates how people can grow separated from each other, the ways that these bonds can be healed and re-established, and how humans define themselves through their relationships with others.
“Tomas Hachard’s superb debut novel . . . [is] supple in its construction . . . a novel as thought-provoking as it is emotionally moving.” —Brian Bethune, Toronto Star
“With zeal and vigour, [City in Flames] demonstrates the reciprocity that may emerge when modern civilization falls — and words are the material with which humanity must start rebuilding.” —Kayla Penteliuk, Literary Review of Canada
“City in Flames is a sharp, spirited exploration of the forces that can separate and bring us together. A modern, dystopian love story set amidst an alarmingly recognizable world that finds tenderness in the chaos.” —Iain Reid, author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Foe, and We Spread
“With this novel, Tomas Hachard has tapped into the essence of humanity, fostering a powerful spirit of love and hope as the world we know crumbles to make way for something new. It’s an ideal love story for the twenty-first century.” —Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Crusted Snow
“An original and tender love story at the heart of a fiery political drama that cuts close to the bone.” —Harriet Alida Lye, author of The Honey Farm and Natural Killer
August 2150
My short story from the July/August 2024 issue of The Walrus.
Clarissa, an eleven-year-old girl, starts noticing strange changes in the weather: the heat is rising, the sun is actually visible in the sky on some days, and trees are dying overnight, covering her school playground with ashen leaves. Then Clarissa finds a diary from the previous century that eerily matches her life. Reading the diary opens up a past that Clarissa didn’t know existed, and reveals a disaster that she is etoo late to escape.