The Water Thief

by Nicholas Lamar Soutter

Overview

"Profound... sure to spark a reaction" and "scathing, ceaselessly engaging"- Kirkus Reviews

"A brilliant rebuttal of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged" - Clarion Reviews

"A powerful saga that deserves to be in every school and debated by any who question authority and elements of freedom in society." - Midwest Book Review

CHARLES THATCHER is a private citizen, which is to say that he's the private property of the Ackermen Brothers Securities Corporation. He's got problems: the cost of air is going up, his wife wants to sell herself to another corporation, and his colleagues are always trying to get him tossed into the lye vats.

But when he discovers a woman stealing rainwater, he sees his chance to move up in the world, maybe even become an executive. He reports her, spinning a picture, not just of a thief, but of a seditionist and revolutionary, someone who believes in that long-dead institution called "government."

Then she vanishes.

Overcome with guilt, he tries to track her down. What he discovers is an underground movement every bit as seditious as the one he had imagined.

But as he becomes enamored with their cause and with life outside his corporation, Charles must contend with a larger truth; in a world where everything is for sale and lies are more profitable than the truth, even a group of revolutionaries can have something to hide.

Winner of The Kirkus Star
Finalist, ForeWord Firsts

Product Details

BN ID:	2940033180783
Publisher:	Nicholas Lamar Soutter
Publication date:	04/22/2012
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	268 KB

About the Author

Nicholas Lamar Soutter was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

He graduated from Clark University with Bachelors' Degrees in Philosophy and Psychology, and began publishing essays on politics and the social sciences.

In 2004 he completed his first book, From Inside the Mirror, about a gifted but clinically psychopathic homicide detective. Despite being represented by one of the premier agencies in the world, the Donald Maass Literary Agency, the book was never published.

In 2007 he began volunteering for the Barack Obama Campaign. In 2008 he became Connecticut for Obama's 2nd Congressional District Coordinator.

In the meantime he finished several other works.

His latest book, The Water Thief, is a near future dystopian novel about a man trying to find his place in a world conquered by corporations

He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two children.

Editorial Reviews

In a world ruled by capitalism, an empathetic corporate worker questions the principles upon which the society functions. Soutter's debut novel is a scathing, ceaselessly engaging examination of capitalism and corporatism. At Ackerman Brothers Securities Corporation, Charles Thatcher works as a Perception Manager; his job is to process and deflect any negativity regarding the corporation. Now that the government has crumbled, capitalism is the new regime, with constant demands for profitable information, either substantiated or speculative. Charles hopes for higher compensation by spinning the story of a woman stealing rainwater, but soon after his ploy, he begins to mull over the consequences and regret his actions. A meeting with Kate, a friend of the woman, leaves Charles reassessing the value of a civilization run by the rich, as he wonders how long capitalism can sustain itself. The story intimates that men and their actions--not just an immaterial idea--are the essential cause of immorality, but it centers on the undesirable fallout of money as the corollary source of power. Soutter's vision of capitalistic supremacy is gleefully absurd: A simple elevator ride costs five cents per floor and information is only conveyed for a price. Societal classes are now purchasable contracts and the poor reside in LowSec (Low Security); a citizen's lot in life, like all commodities, is bought and paid for. There are also welcome dashes of satire derived from characters unable, or unwilling, to acknowledge irony: a Perception Manager writing a report on an unflattering anti–Perception Management story; Linus, a higher-ranking colleague than Charles, offers an alternative moral regarding mendacity (he's not against lying, but rather against telling the same lie more than once). Charles has many lengthy discussions with Kate over now-archaic standards (to them), like people electing other people into power, but their talks are never tedious or repetitive. Their conversations also lead to one of the book's most potent lines: "The single best indicator of where you end up in life is where you start, no matter what the capitalists tell you." Profound, provocative and sure to spark a reaction.

Kirkus Reviews