We
Yevgeny Zamyatin · 1884–1937 · Russia
Originally My (Russian)
Why it matters
A glass city of numbered citizens ruled by the Benefactor, and one engineer's dangerous stirring of a soul. The first great dystopia, written by a disillusioned Bolshevik: the blueprint Orwell and Huxley would build on.
At a glance
dystopianspeculative fiction
Difficulty 5/10fast pace240 pagesFragmented diary form and a mathematically stylized narrative voice take some acclimation.
Deep dive
The novel that invented dystopia a generation before Huxley or Orwell, and the surprising piece of mathematics it uses to make rebellion feel like a disease.
