Happy Pub Day to “The Sentence” by matthew baker
“Matthew Baker’s writing can only be described in the many yets it creates: humorous yet disturbing, gripping yet patient, timely yet timeless. In The Sentence, Baker offers a precise, visionary story of survival and community told in the form of a sentence diagram. On its surface a dystopian cautionary tale, this novella is a startling reflection on language, trust, and desperation in the face of fascism. This is Baker’s most exciting work yet.”— Isle McElroy, author of The Atmospherians and People Collide
The Sentence is wholly unique: a graphic novel told in the form of a sentence diagram. A single 6732-word sentence, diagrammed in full.
Set in a parallel-universe United States in which the government has recently been overthrown by a military coup, the story is narrated by a lonely young grammar professor, Riley, who is suddenly branded a traitor by the new regime. Bewildered by the charges, and fearing a death sentence, Riley manages to flee to an anarchist commune in the wilderness. After a lifetime of feeling alienated, of desperately longing for friendship, Riley is astonished to be accepted and loved by the anarchists—to come to love the anarchists in return. But when the anarchists reveal a plot to assassinate the authoritarian dictator of the country, Riley is forced to choose whether to support the plot—to return to the capital and help the anarchists bomb the headquarters—or to lose their newfound family forever.
Click here to get your copy of The Sentence!
about the author
Named one of Variety’s “10 Storytellers To Watch,” Matthew Baker is the author of the story collections Why Visit America and Hybrid Creatures and the children’s novel Key Of X, originally published as If You Find This. Digital experiments include the temporal fiction “Ephemeral,” the interlinked novel Untold, the randomized novel Verses, and the intentionally posthumous Afterthought, along with the cyber zine Code Lit.