Dewey Decimal

Written by Nathan Larson

Narrated by Mats Eklund

Storskalig terrorattack, influensapandemi och ett kollapsat Wall Street. New York är en skugga av sitt forna jag. Medan staden kämpar sig upp ur vrakresterna intar en namnlös man stadsbiblioteket på 42nd Street. En man med tvångssyndrom, en stor kärlek till litteratur och en komplicerad moralkod. Minnet sviktar och inte ens han själv känner till hemligheten om sitt eget mörka förflutna.

Helst vill Dewey Decimal vara ifred med sina böcker, men när hans uppdragsgivare kallar in honom till ett till synes enkelt uppdrag, kan Dewey inte säga nej. Uppdraget exploderar dock i en blodig härva av våld, skiftande lojaliteter och gamla vendettor, och frågan om Deweys bortglömda identitet väcks åter till liv med förnyad kraft.

"Läsningen håller högt tempo och nya trådar i intrigen avlöser varandra i en närmast brutal hastighet."
Tidningen Kulturen

"Korthuggen och lika brutalt effektiv som rock'n'roll."
Ystads Allehanda

Dewey Decimal är Nathan Larsons kritikerhyllade romandebut och den första delen i en trilogi om den bokälskande och våldsamme Dewey. Nathan Larson är också musiker och spelar bland annat med sin fru Nina Persson i bandet A Camp. Han komponerar även filmmusik och har skrivit musik till en lång rad filmer och tv-serier. Nathan Larsson bor med sin fru och son i New York.

• Language: Svenska
• Publisher: Word Audio Publishing International
• Release date: Aug 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9789175231792

Reviews for Dewey Decimal

[cygnoir_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It may be weird to say that I am a fan of dystopian near-future settings. I have a morbid fascination with bleak, sparse landscapes and crumbling infrastructure; I remain hopeful that I will never have to live in such a world, but constantly wonder what type of person I would be if I survived in one.

In "The Dewey Decimal System", Larson creates an instantly engaging survivor as a protagonist, and a compelling city in ruins around him. Larson's staccato, fragmented style makes this a quick and brutal read with plenty of physical and emotional carnage. I only wished for more scenes in the New York Public Library, yearning for more details of this post-apocalyptic information age that seems entirely devoid of the 'net.

[bravenewbks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Our setting: post-apocalyptic New York. "2/14" has supplanted "9/11," although we don't know exactly what happened or why, just that most of the bridges are destroyed and the City is now a sparsely populated ruin of its former self.

Our protagonist: Dewey Decimal. So named because he plans to spend the rest of his days re-organizing the books in the New York Public Library. He gets his supplies from the DA, a recoil-inducing opportunist who sends Decimal out to get rid of inconvenient characters. Librarian-hitman hybrids aren't common characters in dystopian fiction, but Decimal is more than just that. He's paranoid like Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory, he's a germophobe constantly thinking about using Purell, and he can speak Serbian, Ukrainian, and who knows how many other obscure languages. He also ascribes a mysterious importance to "the System," (thus completing the title's play on words). The System -- which mandates, for instance, that he make only left-hand turns before noon -- makes Decimal's life pretty difficult, but he believes it keeps him safe.

This book is written like a pulp detective novel, but set in the dystopian future. That pulp cliché, the oldest of the old, the most tired of all tired phrases comes to me. But I dig the truth at its core. When in doubt, look for the girl. Cherchez la femme. That dystopian-pulp combination, like the OCD-librarian-hitman, took some getting used to, but it kept me entertained and was unlike anything I've read before. Neither of those is my favorite genre, but if one is yours, I recommend you check this out.

[ladycato · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The concept of this book is absolutely fascinating: a noir detective novel set in post-apocalyptic New York City. It's gritty, bloody, and profane, with the twists and turns ones except of a dark mystery.I had major questions from the start, though, when Dewey Decimal (supposedly this efficient hitman) makes a series of juvenile errors. And continues to make them. I didn't want a flawless protagonist, and he certainly still had plenty of other issues--the guy is severely OCD, like Detective Monk on overdrive. Then the famed "dame" of noir enters. Despite the fascinatingly dark and ruined New York City, the plot becomes awfully predictable if you've read or watched any noir.Dewey himself is an intriguing character. He's a completely unreliable narrator. He believes he lost his family in the disasters that have crippled the country. His memories feature large gaps, while he remembers other marginalia in excruciating detail. By the end of the book, he suddenly shows that he's an efficient killer, too, and in some repulsive ways. I read a lot of dark fantasy where the protagonist does not-so-nice things. But here... by the end, I found my empathy for the character strained, and I was glad to reach the final page.

[bragan_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

New York City -- and possibly the rest of the US? It's never entirely clear -- has been devastated by a series of rapid, highly coordinated terrorist attacks. But, crippled and substantially depopulated, the city continues to limp along. Our story follows "Dewey Decimal," so called because he's set up residence in the New York Public Library, and because he doesn't remember his actual name. There are a lot of other things he doesn't remember, too, not to mention his periods of confusion and his OCD tendencies. But somehow, he still manages to function as a hit man for the city's corrupt DA.It's a really interesting setup, but while the resulting novel isn't bad, it just never clicked with me quite the way I was hoping it would. The backstory of what happened to NYC, and what the city's been through since, are frustratingly lightly sketched and not entirely convincing. Dewey himself almost comes across more as a random collection of damage than as a character. And while the plot, which is full of violence and double-crosses, is decent enough, it has a slightly generic feel to it. There's not much there that I haven't seen before, more or less, and nothing that couldn't work equally well in any setting at all with only minimal changes. Again, it's not bad. It's a quick, decently written noir-ish thriller. But it's not quite what I was hoping for, somehow.

[ageoflibrarius · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Dewey Decimal is a great character. Everyone else is pretty much a stock mystery character---which is fine with me. What isn't fine is the resolution of the story. After all that happened, I just didn't buy it.

[ericfitz08 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

it could be tightened up a bit, especially the dialogue. That said, the story is strong, the action is intense, and this is a fresh take on noir.

[ajbraithwaite_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Possibly not enough library in this book, given its title, but it's an interesting read about what life could be life in a post-Apocalyptic New York. The protagonist is a hit man with a 'system' of morals and rules which help him to navigate the world he's living in. Violent and sweary, this won't be to everyone's taste, but the main character's dilemmas were enough to keep me reading.

[timtom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a post-apocalyptic New York, left half-empty and under the rule of thugs and corrupt officials after an unprecedented series of terrorist attacks, lives a man that doesn't remember his name. Known as Dewey Decimal because he lives in the deserted New York Public Library, he makes a living as a mercenary. His last job, eliminating a union leader, seemed simple enough at first...I very much enjoyed this story. Larson's tough-talking, obsessive-compulsive antihero takes an original go at the first-person detective story. The fast-paced action makes this book very hard to put down. I hope there will be a sequel.

[hairball_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book is pretty conceited--by which I mean it's full of conceits, and they're a little tiring. One or two should be the limit to avoid the appearance (and reality) of literary gimmickry. It felt to me like a bunch of shtick stuck onto the frame of a story, but not enough of anything to make a novel or a point or the five dozen points the author wants to make.