When a radical think tank clones America’s founding fathers, can they run America the way it used to be run? The Boys from Brazil meet the bicentennial in this ingeniously satirical mashup of U. S. history and technocracy gone terribly wrong.
If a radical think tank cloned America’s founding fathers, could they run America the way it used to be run? The Boys from Brazil meet the bicentennial in this ingeniously satirical mashup of U. S. history, cloning, and technocracy gone terribly wrong.
The trouble starts when a curious teenager, Benjamin, finds an iPhone in his privy. The problem is, it’s supposed to be 1750.
Ben takes his discovery to his brothers—Thomas, John, and George. The boys have been raised isolated on an island plantation by a firm but kind woman, Mary Libertas. All four of them chafe at Mary’s restrictions upon them—especially Thomas, who has impregnated yet another servant.
Meanwhile, their de facto father figure, Jeff Hancock, complains to the shadowy Antediluvian Society that it is past the time to explain to the boys where they come from and what they must do: Run America the way it used to be run.
In this more than slightly absurdist novella, Philip K. Dick Award-winning author Meg Elison (Find Layla) skewers those looking to an idyllic past to solve the problems they continue to create.
Bestselling writer Meg Elison is the author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, winner of the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award. The sequel, The Book of Etta, was a PKD finalist in 2018. Both books were on the long list for the Otherwise Award. Her third novel, The Book of Flora, was published in 2019. In 2020, she published her first young adult novel, Find Layla, with Skyscape. It was named one of Vanity Fair’s best books of the year. Her first collection, Big Girl, with PM Press, contains the Locus Award-winning novelette, The Pill. Her thriller novel, Number One Fan, was published by MIRA Books in 2022.
Elison has published dozens of science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories, including “Dresses Like White Elephants” in Uncanny Magazine, “The Bridesmaid” in Fangoria, “Familiar Face” in Nightmare Magazine, “Autonomy” in Clarkesworld, and “The Pizza Boy” in The Magazine ofFantasy & Science Fiction. Her work has been collected in several anthologies for the best stories of the year. An essayist and satirist, Elison has published nonfiction in McSweeney’s, Electric Literature, Tor.com, The Wild Hunt, and Psychopomp. She is also an author of the nonfiction book, Fifty Years of Free Speech: Perspectives on the Movement that Revolutionized Berkeley.
Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. She was a Clayton B. Ofstad endowed distinguished writer-in-residence at Truman State University, as well as a Fred Case and Lola Austin Case Writer-in-Residence at Western Illinois University. She is married to the cartoonist Colin Lidston, and lives in the Berkshires.
Praise for Number One Fan
“Elison’s brutal, incisive novel cuts to the heart of what makes public figures vulnerable and asks us to question our voyeurism.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A tense, gripping, page-turning masterpiece.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Number One Fan is a tense ride from the start as we’re introduced to one of the most deeply unsettling villains I’ve encountered in a long time. It’s about fighting for who and what you are when it would be easier to simply give up and be someone else’s idea of you. It’s about pain and resilience and redemption. In short, it’s terrific.”
—Richard Kadrey, The New York Times bestselling author of Sandman Slim
“A tense, creepy, and deeply spooky thriller that locks you down and wrings you out in the best way possible. I had other things to do today, but I couldn’t put this down—so those things didn’t get done. All Meg’s fault. I hope she’s happy, drat her.”
—Cherie Priest, author of The Toll
Praise for Find Layla
“With Elison’s trademark wit and turn of phrase, we are plunged into the life of Layla Bailey, a middle schooler living her life under extreme parental neglectDespite its adult themes, the story reads like an adventure pitched precisely for children too young to be going through it―and an unsweetened peek into the inner moral battles of a neglected preteen.”
—Vanity Fair
“Sharply observed and well-written, Layla’s story is both accessible and resonant, deftly tackling issues of poverty, neglect, and resilience. . . . A powerful voice that is bound to make an indelible impact on readers.”
—Kirkus
Foundling Fathers
Meg Elison
When a radical think tank clones America’s founding fathers, can they run America the way it used to be run? The Boys from Brazil meet the bicentennial in this ingeniously satirical mashup of U. S. history and technocracy gone terribly wrong.
Foundling Fathers
by Meg Elison
ISBN: 978-1-61696-458-0 (print); 978-1-61696-459-7 (digital)
Published: 23 June 2026
Available Format(s): trade paperback, digital
If a radical think tank cloned America’s founding fathers, could they run America the way it used to be run? The Boys from Brazil meet the bicentennial in this ingeniously satirical mashup of U. S. history, cloning, and technocracy gone terribly wrong.
The trouble starts when a curious teenager, Benjamin, finds an iPhone in his privy. The problem is, it’s supposed to be 1750.
Ben takes his discovery to his brothers—Thomas, John, and George. The boys have been raised isolated on an island plantation by a firm but kind woman, Mary Libertas. All four of them chafe at Mary’s restrictions upon them—especially Thomas, who has impregnated yet another servant.
Meanwhile, their de facto father figure, Jeff Hancock, complains to the shadowy Antediluvian Society that it is past the time to explain to the boys where they come from and what they must do: Run America the way it used to be run.
In this more than slightly absurdist novella, Philip K. Dick Award-winning author Meg Elison (Find Layla) skewers those looking to an idyllic past to solve the problems they continue to create.
Elison has published dozens of science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories, including “Dresses Like White Elephants” in Uncanny Magazine, “The Bridesmaid” in Fangoria, “Familiar Face” in Nightmare Magazine, “Autonomy” in Clarkesworld, and “The Pizza Boy” in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Her work has been collected in several anthologies for the best stories of the year. An essayist and satirist, Elison has published nonfiction in McSweeney’s, Electric Literature, Tor.com, The Wild Hunt, and Psychopomp. She is also an author of the nonfiction book, Fifty Years of Free Speech: Perspectives on the Movement that Revolutionized Berkeley.
Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. She was a Clayton B. Ofstad endowed distinguished writer-in-residence at Truman State University, as well as a Fred Case and Lola Austin Case Writer-in-Residence at Western Illinois University. She is married to the cartoonist Colin Lidston, and lives in the Berkshires.
Praise for Number One Fan
“Elison’s brutal, incisive novel cuts to the heart of what makes public figures vulnerable and asks us to question our voyeurism.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“A tense, gripping, page-turning masterpiece.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Number One Fan is a tense ride from the start as we’re introduced to one of the most deeply unsettling villains I’ve encountered in a long time. It’s about fighting for who and what you are when it would be easier to simply give up and be someone else’s idea of you. It’s about pain and resilience and redemption. In short, it’s terrific.”
—Richard Kadrey, The New York Times bestselling author of Sandman Slim
“A tense, creepy, and deeply spooky thriller that locks you down and wrings you out in the best way possible. I had other things to do today, but I couldn’t put this down—so those things didn’t get done. All Meg’s fault. I hope she’s happy, drat her.”
—Cherie Priest, author of The Toll
Praise for Find Layla
“With Elison’s trademark wit and turn of phrase, we are plunged into the life of Layla Bailey, a middle schooler living her life under extreme parental neglectDespite its adult themes, the story reads like an adventure pitched precisely for children too young to be going through it―and an unsweetened peek into the inner moral battles of a neglected preteen.”
—Vanity Fair
“Sharply observed and well-written, Layla’s story is both accessible and resonant, deftly tackling issues of poverty, neglect, and resilience. . . . A powerful voice that is bound to make an indelible impact on readers.”
—Kirkus
https://megelison.com/