How did 2088 come about? What compelled you to write it?
2088 is the novel that refused to let me go. Over more than a decade, it haunted me—sometimes falling silent, sometimes demanding my attention with an urgency I couldn’t ignore. The writing process was anything but linear: I’d find myself channeling the voices of my characters, each with their own unique cadence and worldview, and the story would surge forward in unpredictable bursts. My goal was to craft a narrative that resonates across generations, which is why you’ll notice the styles shift—each chapter is a window into a different consciousness, a different era. To bring these characters to life, I wrote out their biographies in detail, tracing the choices and accidents that shaped them, hoping readers would see themselves reflected in their struggles and triumphs.
What is 2088 about?
At its heart, 2088 is a sweeping epic—a tapestry woven from threads of family, legacy, and the aftermath of tragedy. Imagine the haunting scope of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 crossed with the emotional resonance of Everything Is Illuminated. Spanning continents and decades, the novel explores how the past ripples forward, shaping destinies in ways both intimate and global. It’s a story about the secrets we inherit, the burdens we carry, and the hope that redemption is always possible, even when the world seems to be falling apart.
Can you expand on the plot and its characters?
The journey begins in 1944 with Jonathan Cooper, a clairvoyant child who saves his family from the devastation of V-2 rockets in London. As Jonathan grows, he hides his gift, becoming a teacher at Cambridge and keeping his visions secret. His son, James, inherits this ability and becomes a filmmaker with a knack for being in the right place at the right time—witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall and, later, the collapse of the North Tower on 9/11. That day becomes a crucible for James, leaving him physically and emotionally scarred.
Years later, James’s estranged son, Jake, unearths the tangled legacy left behind: a mysterious Salvador Dalí painting, a mother entangled in art forgery, and a romance his father kept hidden. Jake’s quest to understand his family takes him from Africa to Rome, Barcelona, and Dubai, as he pieces together a story that is both deeply personal and thrillingly international.
How does 9/11 shape the narrative?
The events of 9/11 are the novel’s gravitational center. The trauma of that day reverberates through every character, every secret, every choice. But 2088 is not just about a single tragedy—it’s about the universal experience of falling: falling in and out of love, falling from grace, falling through the cracks of history. The novel asks: How do we find meaning in chaos? How do we rebuild after we fall?
How do the characters process catastrophe?
One of the novel’s central voices, Elena, reflects on the impossibility of a single narrative after catastrophe:
“Catastrophe resists singular narratives,” Elena explains. “It fragments experience, creates multiple perspectives, multiple truths that cannot be reconciled into a unified account… The patterns we find in catastrophe—whether statistical or narrative or symbolic—reflect our human need to make sense of the senseless, to find order in chaos, to establish meaning in events that threaten to overwhelm our capacity for understanding.”
This multiplicity of perspectives is woven throughout the novel, inviting readers to question the stories we tell ourselves about survival, guilt, and hope.
What can readers expect from 2088?
2088 offers a layered, immersive experience—a blend of suspense, emotional depth, and philosophical inquiry. It’s a novel for anyone who’s ever wondered how families survive the unthinkable, how secrets shape who we become, and how, even in the darkest times, the possibility of redemption endures. Expect a story that will keep you turning pages late into the night—and leave you thinking long after the final chapter.