This is fresh air, I'm Terry Gross.

My guest Matt Johnson calls his new satirical novel, A Parable About Partisanship.

It's set in the future when Earth is on the verge of destruction, and a NASA mission

sets off to one of Jupiter's many moons to explore if it could be a place that humans

could inhabit.

What they find is an artificial ecosystem, the size of an American county, constructed

to look like an American city.

It's populated with earthlings who have been abducted, dating back to 1623, and their

offspring.

Life in this dome is in some ways a replica of life on Earth, even with products that

have brand names that anyone on Earth would recognize.

There's a class system in which the privileged feel like they've fulfilled the dream, and

everyone else is shut out.

The political system is designed to favor the privileged.

Comfortably sitting at the top are the descendants of the founders.

They run the dominant political party.

The more recently you've arrived, the lower your status.

If you ask who built this town, you're told, God and God's chosen.

If you probe any further, you will be punished in truly mysterious ways.

The novel is called Invisible Things.

Matt Johnson has written several previous novels that deal with race.

The main character in Loving Day is By Racial, like Johnson.

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