We're right back there, in that same moment.
Acclaim for Contract City
"In Contract City, Mark Falkin dreams up a near dystopian future that is already eerily upon us, where privatized services are becoming standard fare, where fear is now palpable and our sense of security comes with a price. I happened to come across this fine book in the fall of 2016, and in many ways it's been a sobering glimpse into the age of Trump."
―Oscar Cásares, Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Texas, NEA Fellow, and author of Brownsville: Stories, Amigoland, and Where We Come From
“Contract City is a firecracker of a story. Powerful, ambitious and compulsive, Mark Falkin’s futuristic setting left me nostalgic for a world where I still live. Sara is one of those characters―real, raw, vulnerable―who I would follow anywhere, even down paths as dark as this one.”
―Mary Helen Specht, Dobie-Paisano Creative Writing Fellow, professor at St. Edward’s University and author of Migratory Animals
“A breathless ride of a novel. Seventeen-year-old Sara is a protagonist readers are unlikely to forget. Making a documentary film with the hopes of impressing college admission officers, she winds up at the center of a revolution, where no one―not the boy she falls in love with or even her own father―is who he first appears to be. A novel rife with engaging characters and rich with powerful ideas and implicit warnings about an all-too-believable future, Contract City is the very best kind of page-turner.”
―Suzanne Greenberg, author of Lesson Plans and winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for Speed-Walk and Other Stories
"Falkin offers a timely and discussion-worthy look at where the U.S. might be headed, wrapped in nonstop (and profanity-laced) action . . . With twists turning until the end, it's hard to put this down.”
―Booklist
"If you’re a not-so-young adult who appreciates this genre, Falkin’s book is a must”
―Dallas Observer
“A very strong dystopian take on America in the not too distant future, a fascinating retelling of the darkest days in Tulsa history, and a complex, well-done novel that will definitely appeal to younger readers.”
―Olga Wise, Chair, Austin Public Library Commission
"A YA novel as intelligent and intriguing as any I've seen"
―Kay Ellington, Publisher, Lone Star Literary Life
"Falkin focuses as much on wordcraft as plot twists, which elevates this believably futuristic tale, as do the universal teen concerns of Sara and her friends. (Ages 14 and older)"
―Austin American-Statesman
#1 Bestseller in Austin
―Austin American-Statesman
2015 Summer Reads Pick
―Austin American-Statesman
After the assassination of the President seven years ago, after the riots that followed, riots so severe that martial law was implemented, in 2021, the nation has changed. And though things have changed, some things remain the same. Like many teenagers, seventeen year-old self-admitted film geek Sara Christie wants to be understood and escape her current life. Her family life is falling apart, due to her estrangement from her mother and the fact that it is clear that her parents are headed for a divorce; her high school social life isn’t doing much for her, though she has a great friend in Nikki; twin brother Adam is maniacally training for the big Army-sponsored gaming tournament; and her love life is, well, non-existent.
But she’s passionate about film, and with her junior year coming to an end, she embarks on a summer during which she intends to make the documentary film needed for her college application to UCLA’s vaunted film program. She’s got the grades, the extracurriculars, and now, the perfect film subject: over the last few months, someone has been creating impactful, transgressive yet beautiful street art, graffiti mostly, all over her home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city that has become the first fully privatized city in the country . . . and a police state.
Everybody’s talking about the street art which now threatens to rise from the underground and come into mainstream focus, exactly where Tulsa’s power structure doesn’t want it. In making her film about the art, who’s making it and why, Sara captures something that quickly finds her caught in a crucible wherein everything she values is threatened, including her beloved father, her mysterious first love, her volatile hometown about which she learns more than she wants, and, quite possibly, her life.
"In Contract City, Mark Falkin dreams up a near dystopian future that is already eerily upon us, where privatized services are becoming standard fare, where fear is now palpable and our sense of security comes with a price. I happened to come across this fine book in the fall of 2016, and in many ways it's been a sobering glimpse into the age of Trump."
―Oscar Cásares, Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Texas, NEA Fellow, and author of Brownsville: Stories, Amigoland, and Where We Come From
“Contract City is a firecracker of a story. Powerful, ambitious and compulsive, Mark Falkin’s futuristic setting left me nostalgic for a world where I still live. Sara is one of those characters―real, raw, vulnerable―who I would follow anywhere, even down paths as dark as this one.”
―Mary Helen Specht, Dobie-Paisano Creative Writing Fellow, professor at St. Edward’s University and author of Migratory Animals
“A breathless ride of a novel. Seventeen-year-old Sara is a protagonist readers are unlikely to forget. Making a documentary film with the hopes of impressing college admission officers, she winds up at the center of a revolution, where no one―not the boy she falls in love with or even her own father―is who he first appears to be. A novel rife with engaging characters and rich with powerful ideas and implicit warnings about an all-too-believable future, Contract City is the very best kind of page-turner.”
―Suzanne Greenberg, author of Lesson Plans and winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize for Speed-Walk and Other Stories
"Falkin offers a timely and discussion-worthy look at where the U.S. might be headed, wrapped in nonstop (and profanity-laced) action . . . With twists turning until the end, it's hard to put this down.”
―Booklist
"If you’re a not-so-young adult who appreciates this genre, Falkin’s book is a must”
―Dallas Observer
“A very strong dystopian take on America in the not too distant future, a fascinating retelling of the darkest days in Tulsa history, and a complex, well-done novel that will definitely appeal to younger readers.”
―Olga Wise, Chair, Austin Public Library Commission
"A YA novel as intelligent and intriguing as any I've seen"
―Kay Ellington, Publisher, Lone Star Literary Life
"Falkin focuses as much on wordcraft as plot twists, which elevates this believably futuristic tale, as do the universal teen concerns of Sara and her friends. (Ages 14 and older)"
―Austin American-Statesman
#1 Bestseller in Austin
―Austin American-Statesman
2015 Summer Reads Pick
―Austin American-Statesman
After the assassination of the President seven years ago, after the riots that followed, riots so severe that martial law was implemented, in 2021, the nation has changed. And though things have changed, some things remain the same. Like many teenagers, seventeen year-old self-admitted film geek Sara Christie wants to be understood and escape her current life. Her family life is falling apart, due to her estrangement from her mother and the fact that it is clear that her parents are headed for a divorce; her high school social life isn’t doing much for her, though she has a great friend in Nikki; twin brother Adam is maniacally training for the big Army-sponsored gaming tournament; and her love life is, well, non-existent.
But she’s passionate about film, and with her junior year coming to an end, she embarks on a summer during which she intends to make the documentary film needed for her college application to UCLA’s vaunted film program. She’s got the grades, the extracurriculars, and now, the perfect film subject: over the last few months, someone has been creating impactful, transgressive yet beautiful street art, graffiti mostly, all over her home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a city that has become the first fully privatized city in the country . . . and a police state.
Everybody’s talking about the street art which now threatens to rise from the underground and come into mainstream focus, exactly where Tulsa’s power structure doesn’t want it. In making her film about the art, who’s making it and why, Sara captures something that quickly finds her caught in a crucible wherein everything she values is threatened, including her beloved father, her mysterious first love, her volatile hometown about which she learns more than she wants, and, quite possibly, her life.
History doesn't repeat itself,
but it does rhyme.
— Mark Twain
but it does rhyme.
— Mark Twain
