Martin Shapiro's 2039

by Martin Shapiro

Martin Shapiro’s 2039 President’s Day, February 21, 2039 Life in the United States is much different than we remember it. No nuclear explosions, widespread epidemics, or other catastrophes have devastated the countryside. But the America we grew up in and the land that we loved is gone. The freedoms that the Republic was founded upon have been trampled, shackling the individual “for a more equal greater good” and for the “security of the nation,” so says the government. • Retirement age is seventy-five. • Healthcare is rationed. • The NSA, FBI and the IRS monitor everyone, our communications, movements and finances. • More than marijuana is legal. • There is no escape. • Exit Permits are required to leave the country, …even for a cruise or vacation in the Caribbean. • And that’s… just the beginning! The sum of a country’s wealth is its ENERGY . America is energy independent and has prohibited export. We don’t share. The rest of the world is scrambling. Alliances have shifted. Relations with Israel are severed after their bombing of Iran. Our military protection is for sale. We’re the modern Hessians. The budget is balanced and the surplus nearly a trillion. Our total debt peaked but was reduced by a bail-in of our own. There’s full employment and the population is growing. But not everyone’s happy! Jonathon and Ida Kadish have had enough. Diagnosed with a health issue for which the National HealthCare Plan offers no treatment, Jon and his wife decide to get out, to seek treatment elsewhere. A retired Navy Commander and former skipper of submarines, Jon is a vice president in the Defense Industry Cabinet with a high-level security clearance. His travel is restricted. But they have a married daughter with children, living in Canada. They manage a Family Assistance Exit Permit to visit them in Sherbrooke, Quebec. And they don’t plan to return! It’s President’s Day weekend. Jon and Ida embark on a tension filled drive to the Canadian border, but it’s not as easy as they had hoped. Once again Martin Shapiro tells of a journey; of mysterious people they meet, of bureaucratic obstacles, new opportunities and intrigue – that envelop them from startling places and how they manage to weigh through their hopes, plans and options in just the next few days... VISIT AMAZON.COM FOR KINDLE VERSION; $7.99 . (now available)

372 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2013

Reviews

[Abdullah Yasmin]

This book's opening pages hit me like a ton of bricks. The description of what America looks like in 2039, retirement at 75, rationed healthcare, exit permits required just to take a vacation, felt disturbingly possible. Shapiro isn't writing about some post apocalyptic wasteland. He's describing a slow erosion of freedom that could happen while we're all distracted. The detail about needing permission to visit your own daughter in Canada really drove it home for me. I'm only through the sample, but I'm hooked. The world building is subtle but effective, dropped in through natural observations rather than info dumps.

[Fahd Abdullah]

Most dystopian fiction focuses on pandemics or nuclear war, but Shapiro takes a different tack. The
premise that America's energy independence becomes both its strength and its isolating weakness is
fascinating. The line about how we don't share the energy wealth explains so much about the
international dynamics he hints at. The mention of severed relations with Israel after they bombed Iran adds another layer of complexity. This isn't just domestic surveillance fiction. It's geopolitical speculation too. The sample sets up a rich world I want to explore further.

[Seymour]

What grabbed me immediately was how ordinary Jon and Ida seem despite their extraordinary situation. A retired Navy Commander, a wife facing a health crisis, adult children living abroad. These could be any couple's circumstances, just twisted by the oppressive system they live under. The detail that Jon has a high level security clearance that restricts his travel adds genuine tension. They're not action heroes. They're scared, determined people who've quietly decided they won't come back from visiting their daughter. That quiet desperation is more compelling than any car chase could be.

[Trevor]

Political thrillers often fail because the politics remain abstract. Not here. Jon's untreated health condition gives every policy decision personal weight. The National HealthCare Plan won't cover his treatment, so he's literally willing to risk everything, his security clearance, his retirement, possibly his freedom, to seek help elsewhere. That's not ideology. That's survival. The sample does a masterful job of showing how grand political systems eventually crash into individual lives. I'm invested in Jon's fate precisely because his motivation is so simple and human.

[Gage Arlen]

The world Shapiro builds in these opening pages is genuinely creative. The bail in that reduced national debt, the sale of military protection, full employment alongside lost freedoms. These are fresh ideas in a crowded genre. However, the setup of a couple fleeing an oppressive regime is well traveled territory. I'm hoping the sample's promise of mysterious people and intrigue from startling places means the execution will diverge from expectations. The groundwork is solid, but I need to see where it goes.

[Curran Neil]

The sample does exactly what a sample should do. It establishes a compelling world. It introduces
sympathetic characters with clear motivation. It creates tension. And it ends with the journey just
beginning. The mention of mysterious people they meet and intrigue from startling places promises that this won't be a straightforward escape narrative. If the full book delivers on the sample's promise, this could be one of the more thoughtful dystopian novels of the decade. I'm downloading the full version now.

[Ethelbert]

The line about our military protection being for sale and America becoming the modern Hessians stopped me cold. Shapiro's comparison of America to the German mercenaries hired by the British during the Revolutionary War is devastating. The idea that American soldiers might become hired guns for other nations, that our military might becomes a commodity, is both historically resonant and deeply unsettling. The sample is dense with these kinds of thoughtful parallels that reward a slower reading.

[Benji Willis]

The sample introduces Jon and Ida as a couple, but Jon's background as a Navy Commander in the
defense industry gets more attention than Ida's interiority. We know she has a health condition that
motivates their escape, but we don't yet feel her fear, her hope, her memories of a freer America. I'm
hoping the full book balances their perspectives more evenly. The premise is strong enough to carry
some imbalance, but Ida deserves to be a full character, not just a motivation for Jon.

[Colson Franklyn]

Reading this sample in 2025, with 2039 only fourteen years away, adds an uncomfortable layer. Shapiro wrote this in 2014 as speculative fiction. Now it's creeping closer to our present. Some elements like mass surveillance and erosion of privacy already feel dated only in that they're here. Others like exit permits and energy wars still feel distant. The sample's power comes partly from this temporal proximity. We can see the path from here to there, and it's not as long as we'd like to think.