Within
Twenty generations ago, the Sun burnt the Earth. Men have been walled in ever since.
Until a kid finds the truth.
In a world where sunlight is forbidden and truth is heresy, one young man’s curiosity will either liberate humanity or destroy everything he loves.
In a world where sunlight is forbidden and truth is heresy, one young man’s curiosity will either liberate humanity – or destroy everything he loves.
For twenty generations, humanity has hidden in viewless corridors, told that the Sun above has burned all life from the Earth. Boz has never questioned the Tenets that govern every aspect of their existence – until he meets Mozart the Heretic, whose disfigured face tells a different story about what really happened to those who sought the truth.
When Mozart reveals that the surface world still thrives in secret paradise, Boz faces an impossible choice: remain safely ignorant in his prison, or risk everything to discover what lies beyond the forbidden exits. Driven by his love for Flox, a remarkable young woman from the violent outer corridors, Boz embarks on a perilous journey through pitch-black tunnels toward the mythical ‘Land of Without’ for a mission as yet unknown to him.
What he finds shatters everything he believed. The surface world is not only habitable but beautiful – a garden paradise where the privileged few enjoy nature’s bounty while millions remain trapped below in ignorance. But when Boz learns the true, appalling content of his mission outside, he must choose between the liberation of his people and the virginity of his own conscience. In a world where every freedom demands a sacrifice, how do you choose between love and justice – especially when you’re no longer sure which is which?
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About the Author
Alan Rhode is a former journalist from Italy, now based in South-West London.
His latest book ‘Within’ tells the story of Boz, a kid in a future where humans live secluded in viewless corridors with no access to the outside world, and where are told that the evil Sun made the Earth unliveable many generations before. Curious and determined, after an adventurous quest Boz discovers one appalling truth that most men would surely never accept.
Within is a haunting philosophical thriller that touches on themes of environmental change, truth and lies, coming of age.
Alan’s previous novel, ‘The Eagle and the Cockerel’, is a fast-paced political intrigue that brings the reader on a breathtaking journey through Paris, Berlin, Milan and the UK, culminating in an unprecedented referendum – hosted by a tyrannical social media platform – on the unification of France and Germany in a single super-power: Charlemagny. The novel is inspired by a relatively unknown historical fact – that in 1950 the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer publicly proposed the idea that France and Germany should merge into a single country.
Alan is currently working on his (secret) third novel.
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