Overview

This gripping speculative fiction novel edges just ahead of today's headlines, imagining a dystopic near-future that is all too plausible. Martial law declared. Elections canceled. Congress and the Courts dissolved. The White House moves to dramatically reshape the nation. When the power goes out and neighbors grow feral, white college dropout Norman squats in a house by the James River, then joins an immigrant rebel camp, where he learns that his hometown Richmond, Virginia is being forcefully converted into a model White Nationalist city and all its non-white residents deported or worse. Sent into the city as a spy for the rebels, Norman is greeted as a direct descendant of the First Families of Virginia and begins a guided exploration of all the opportunities - career, romance, riches -- open to him as one with such privileged genes. He learns that the populace is controlled by a generalized artificial intelligence which advises and supervises the people via communicator/trackers implanted in their jaws, and that this computer, trained to think gangsta like the President, is about to launch a final ethnic cleansing assault on stragglers in the suburbs, including his friends in the rebel camp. Tempted by the many advantages allowed by his heritage, but wary of the dystopian city's fascist and racist character, he must choose whether to stay or go. This crisis comes to a head on Covenant Day, when the President is scheduled to visit the city for the unveiling of a huge gilded statue in his honor while at the same time a robot army eliminates the stragglers.

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9781732760875

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Reviews

""Covenant City is eerily prescient, darkly compelling, and filled with rich imagery of a Virginia and a possible future that is both familiar and terrifying. For those who have read Gentry before, you will find the smooth pacing and complicated characters you are used to, but also a story that goes to places that are dystopian and disturbing. It is quite an accomplishment to write a central Virginia coming of age story that is also a significant insight into the troubled times we live in, especially one filled with so many warnings that won't easily leave the reader after finishing, and an ending that begs the reader to imagine what comes next."" - Jack Trammell, author of With Justice for All ""An eye-opening, heart-pounding look at what could happen if people don't hold leaders accountable today. This novel is an urgent call to action for anyone interested in shaping a world worth passing down to our children."" - Rosemary Rawlins, author of All My Silent Years ""While the premise may seem like dark fiction, the story itself quickly emerges as a sharp-edged mirror to our current world. A rare book that is simultaneously enjoyable to read and deeply unsettling to contemplate."" - Katy Munger, mystery author ""A smart, funny, moving, and ultimately hopeful look up ahead around the corner of history."" - Paul Witcover, author of Lincolnstein ""Scarily on the money."" - Randy Fertel, author of Winging It ""A smart, funny, moving, and ultimately hopeful look up ahead around the corner of history."" - Paul Witcover, author of Lincolnstein ""A quite moving coming of age story set in a near-future American dystopia that is all too plausible. Scarily on the money."" - Randy Fertel, author of A Taste for Chaos

Author Information

Tony Gentry (tonygentry.com) is the author of the speculative fiction novel Covenant City. His previous book, the biographical novel The Night Doctor of Richmond, about the Medical College of Virginia's notorious 19th Century grave robber Chris Baker, was short-listed for the 2024 Faulkner Society Prize and was a finalist in the James River Writer's unpublished novel competition. His debut novel The Coal Tower was short-listed for the 2019 Faulkner Society First Novel Prize and was followed by the story collection Last Rites (2019), a book of poetry Yearnful Raves (2020) and the personal history WWII Mortarman: My Father's Service with the 99th Chemical Mortar Battalion - European Theater (2024). ​Tony has also authored a series of young adult biographies: Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jesse Owens, Dizzy Gillespie, Alice Walker and Elvis Presley (Chelsea House - now out of print). The Gillespie title was awarded best YA biography by the New York Public Library in 1993. His stories and poems have been widely published in literary journals.​ Biographically speaking, Tony is a born-and-raised Virginian, who has traveled a bit. A graduate of Fluvanna County High School, Harvard College (BA - history & literature), New York University (MA - occupational therapy) and the University of Virginia (PhD - instructional technology), he has worked as a security guard in Boston, a waiter, museum preparator and award-winning radio news producer (WWL) in New Orleans, a legal proofreader and word processor in New York, and as an occupational therapist in New York, Los Angeles, Fort Wayne, Raleigh, and Charlottesville, where he founded and directed a community-based rehab program The John Jane Brain Injury Center (now known as Bridgeline), before moving on to a career as a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. At VCU, he pioneered research into mobile devices and smart homes as cognitive-behavioral aids for people with disabilities.​Tony is a member of the Writer's Guild, James River Writers, Poetry Society of Virginia, Sierra Club, Lifelong Learning Institute and James River Association. He and his wife Christine, also an occupational therapist, live in Bon Air, Virginia with their dog Buddy, their two sons having successfully flown the coop.

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