The Dying Game, Asa Avdic
The Dying Game, Asa Avdic
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The Dying Game

Author: Asa Avdic

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell, Mark Deakins, Steve West

Unabridged: 7 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 08/01/2017


Synopsis

A masterly locked-room mystery set in a near-future Orwellian state—for fans of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Dave Eggers’ The Circle, and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games
 
Do you live to play? Or play to live?

The year is 2037. The Soviet Union never fell, and much of Europe has been consolidated under the totalitarian Union of Friendship. On the tiny island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a forty-eight-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic bureaucrat with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment: to stage her own death and then to observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the six other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure? But then a storm rolls in, the power goes out, and the real game begins. . . .
 
Combining suspense, unexpected twists, psychological gamesmanship, and a sinister dystopian future, The Dying Game conjures a world in which one woman is forced to ask, “Can I save my life by staging my death?”

About The Author

Asa Avdic is a journalist who for years was a presenter for Swedish Public Service Radio and Television and is currently a host of Sweden’s biggest morning current events program. She lives with her family in Stockholm, Sweden. The Dying Game is her first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Zuky on November 03, 2017

I was nervous going in to the this one after reading various terrible reviews for it and I’ve come out the other end feeling very much the same way as other readers. I haven’t read And Then There Were None but I’ve watched the BBC mini-series and this novel definitely did feel like a very uninspired......more

Goodreads review by Liz on August 05, 2017

I really loved The Dying Game but I think it might be a little divisive considering the blurb which leads you to expect a kind of ode to Christie’s “And Then there were None” – which I suppose given the isolated setting and the actions there it kind of is – but this is also a dystopian novel, set in......more

Goodreads review by Blair on August 02, 2017

First, a bit of scene-setting – this might look and sound like a thriller, but context is important (and may be crucial to enjoyment where this novel is concerned). In the world of The Dying Game, it's 2037. There was a Second Cold War in 'the early 2000s', leading to the creation of the Union of Fr......more

Goodreads review by Sonja Rosa Lisa ♡ on December 22, 2017

Die Geschichte spielt in Schweden im Jahr 2037. Handlungsort ist eine einsame Insel in den Schären, auf dem ein verlassenes Haus steht. In diesem Haus findet eine Art Experiment statt. Sechs Menschen werden für wenige Tage auf die Insel gebracht. Sie sind alle Bewerber für einen begehrten Platz eine......more

Goodreads review by Briar's Reviews on September 03, 2023

The Dying Game by Asa Avdic is such a unique read! I wasn't sure what I was in for and I loved it! This wild ride takes place in 2037 where 7 people have been chosen to participate in a 48-hour challenge for an intelligence, top-secret position for the "Union of Friendship." Anna Francis, our lead, i......more


Quotes

“A deliciously creepy novel revolving around a terrific paradigm shift: The job you think you’re doing? That’s not the job you’re really doing.” —Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author of The Expats

“Agatha Christie meets George Orwell in journalist Avdic’s unsettling first novel. . . . Avdic not only constructs a fascinating and original plot but makes her imagined reality chillingly plausible.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A high-stakes test of survival and betrayal . . . Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None crossed-pollinated with ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ . . . An unsettling portrait of our possible future.” —Kirkus Reviews

“An Orwellian debut novel that never lets up . . . A heady mix of And Then There Were None and The Hunger Games [and] a supremely competitive struggle for survival.” —Booklist

“Intriguing . . . Reminiscent of classic ‘locked room’ mysteries by writers like Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and P. D. James. But its near-future setting and Orwellian setup make it feel almost chillingly forward-looking as well.” —Bookreporter

“With a scary dystopia core and a foreboding that lurks on every page, this is terrifying stuff.” —Heat

“Resembling Agatha Christie at her zaniest, this fascinating, ever-changing scenario is deftly and grippingly handled.” —The Sunday Times (London)