Future Imperfect

“The streets are a spider’s web of new tributaries. Everything is underwater. Don’t worry about us, but nothing is the same anymore.”

IT’S A CLIMATE CHANGED WORLD, and the River Rhone has flooded the town of Arles in France. Helen and Isha leave to join their daughter and eleven-month-old granddaughter, Ayo, in England. In Calais, Isha, who has Ugandan-Asian ancestry, is told that new rules mean she will be immediately deported if she crosses the Channel. Faced with a terrible dilemma, Helen chooses to stay with her. Homeless and stateless, they seek refuge in a friend’s Swiss mountain chalet, but to get there, they must avoid main roads and immigration checkpoints. They decide to walk along the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome, now also the preferred escape corridor for climate refugees fleeing north. Jana resolves to follow them, but this is not a simple decision. The family communicates whenever and however they can while battling exhaustion, terror and the virulent xenophobia of people struggling to protect their increasingly scarce resources.
Their journey does not end in Switzerland. The end of their story is a new beginning.

Quite simply we think it’s an important book, a call to action. It is one of those rare works of fiction which are a warning and which use the power of story to act as a catalyst for change. 

Iain Parke Bad Press Ink

Future Imperfect is a thought-provoking and timely book that explores a not-too-distant future where environmental changes and social divisions have reshaped society. The book raises important questions about vulnerability, scarcity of resources, social order, and resistance. It offers a warning of what could happen if we continue on our current path but also presents alternative actions and lifestyles. The book skilfully weaves together themes of environmental change, the importance of trees, the consequences of greed, and the power of indigenous wisdom. It is not a dystopian novel but rather a story of endeavour. Future Imperfect will make you reflect on the choices we make today and the impact they will have on our future.
– Kumi Naidoo, International Executive Director of Greenpeace. International 2009-2015,
Secretary General of Amnesty International 2018-2020

Babette Gallard’s debut novel is a deep dive into a dystopian future. Forced by emotional bonds, our protagonists become outsiders in a world where swathes of humanity are excluded from society by its dictators. It is gripping, tender, intelligent and deeply political. Its tone is set somewhere between Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future and Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered. The book will undoubtedly become part of the canon in the rapidly emerging and uplifting genre of political cli-fi.
– Rehad Desai, Producer / Director of Miners Shot Down, How to Steal a Country and Everything Must Fall

This is one of those rare books that becomes part of you. The stories and circumstances of the main characters draw you in quickly and resonate long after you’ve closed the covers. Future Imperfect shines a light into the corners of our everyday lives, and we recognise what we see as all too familiar. An engrossing read.
– Terry Shakinovsky, author of Knock on the Door
and book reviewer

Speechless. Enthralling, disturbing, exquisitely written in parts, a book for our times. Set in 2050, a dystopian future where Nature has been trashed and the refugee crisis is now that of unimaginable persecution and despair. We follow an extended family on their flight in search of ‘utopia’, which is no longer over there but has to be found in the now. The surrender to digitalisation is complete, my worst nightmare, despite those of us screaming the warnings re-control as it is happening now. People scoff, oh well, that’s what’s going to happen as if there is no other way and this book spells out what may be closer in our future than we think. We are sleepwalking into the pages of this book and my throat hurts……Bravo Babette. Sue

Absolutely worth reading. I wish I could make everyone I know read this book. Or maybe it should be made into a Netflix series so that it reaches a bigger audience. So many issues raised that we should all be thinking about. From the facts about climate change and the way it is going to affect every single one of us, to the way we treat refugees… It’s all happening right now. And this is heightened and fictionalised, but it is coming our way… Excellent book which I really enjoyed. Read it! Nikki

This book should be essential reading for anyone interested in our future. This is Britain and Europe less than 30 years from now. Sea level rising and more ferocious storms have devastated the landscape, drowning cities and arable land. Migrants and refugees are stranded in no man’s land as borders close. We follow the story of one family trying to find each other in France and Switzerland and the people they meet along the way who help them. What I realised reading this is how reliant we all are on the internet and how easy it is to control society. People born in the last 30 years have grown up totally reliant on technology for so much. Let’s hope our future is more positive than the one in Future Imperfect. Sally Poole

Thought-provoking insight into the future. A different kind of book for me. Set in the (perhaps not too distant!) future where climate impact has resulted in serious flooding and countries across the world and Europe starting to insulate against’ foreigners’ coming through their borders; in a world where the Directors set the tone but, in doing so, create greater divides between the social classes. Told through the lens of Jana and her mothers as they try to navigate their way to meeting again. A really interesting take on the future of technology and how this divides people; great characters and enough action to keep you interested but also wonderfully evocative imagery and you really associate with the characters, the mothers particularly. Worth a read. Charlotte

It terrified and enthralled me. I chose to read Future Imperfect by Babette Gallard because I am partial to dystopian novels. I didn’t realise how close to the bone it would be. It terrified and enthralled me. I love that it was from a woman’s point of view, two older women and one younger with a toddler, which highlighted the danger and fear for me, as I put myself in their shoes at every turn. It was also very effective to have them related in a modern way but separated for most of the terrible dilemma in which they found themselves as climate refugees. A view into an imperfect future – if we don’t wake up and smell the ersatz coffee. G Marshall

Terrifyingly plausible near-future dystopian novel. Set in 2050, the River Rhône has burst its banks, forcing Helen and her wife, Isha, to flee their home in Arles. They decide to join their daughter back in England, but immigration laws mean that Isha will be deported to Uganda if she enters the UK, due to her grandparents coming from there. They decide, instead, to journey south and meet their daughter Jana and baby granddaughter in Switzerland. The book follows the two journeys to get to Switzerland. It’s worryingly plausible that immigration laws are tightened to xenophobic levels, and that the only way that people can pay for things or communicate is via connection to a Big Brother-style network accessed by wearing a headband. This makes it very easy to track people, too. Kriss