Book Review: Harnessing Altruism

                                                                                   BOOK INFORMATION:                                                                  

Could you keep on living, and how, as the sole survivor of all your family? Would you bring a child into a world in which it would live without any means of modern civilization, in misery and isolation – knowing that would never change? If you could never see either your husband or your son ever again, who would you choose?

 Harnessing Altruism is about the world in the mid twenty-first century and beyond, in which the very existence of humanity is threatened by an unbearably hot climate and shortages of essential resources due to the long-term insatiable greed of modern civilization. The Turnbull family struggles to survive under increasingly harsh conditions in the war-torn world, in miserable refugee camps and in underground sanctuaries having nothing else but minimal rations of food and water. In the process, from childhood to older age, Ed must keep learning where the balance is between his primal instinct for survival and desire to maintain his own essential traits of humanity, how to handle the ‘every man for himself’ situations while facing the risk of imminent death, and what is that one thing for which he would do anything in the world. 

Answering all these and other questions is made monumentally hard by the helplessness of people in a world in which they influence nothing and do not know who decides about the life and death of the irreversibly and progressively shrinking human population.

                                                                        MY THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK                                                              

Harnessing Altruism is a new dystopian piece of fiction that was written by Sava Buncic. In this world,​ the government has really done a number. They have promoted leaders that are super corrupt. Their successes were shown but their failures were swept under the rug. Unfortunately for them, not everything can be kept a secret. Something that will impact life itself is hard to keep from the people.

Underground groups formed, speaking warnings about global warming, and various resources. The government listened from their air-conditioned offices, nice plush chairs, sitting their just pretending things weren't as bad as they seem.

The tried to ignore the problem trying to divert the public attention until it was too late. The energy was almost entirely depleted, they were out of money to get supplies, agriculture was on the downhill almost completely failing. Crops were depleted. They had no plan of action, no backup plans, and every country was struggling. This situation brought about the World Organization for Resource Management.

Harnessing Altruism is a brilliant dystopian novel. I found the reason I liked it so much is the fact that this could happen in real life. The thought about sacrificing our values was interesting. It was a great question that I hope we never have to ask. It was an interesting look into a possible future for mankind. It had well designed and thought out characters. I loved them all even the supporting roles. The writing was excellent and well done. I loved the creativity of this novel.