They
First published in 1977 and lost for decades, Kay Dick's strange, slim novel was rediscovered and reissued in 2022 to wide acclaim. It unfolds in nine linked vignettes set along the English coast and countryside, where painters, writers, and musicians live under the gathering shadow of They, a featureless collective that hates art. Books are seized. Paintings burn. Solitary thinkers vanish. The dystopia is never explained in policy terms, only felt. Dick's prose is pared down and lyrical, closer to Shirley Jackson than to Orwell, more dream than tract. Margaret Atwood, John Wyndham, and Daphne du Maurier all hover in the background. A small, eerie, indispensable book about how quickly a culture can be hollowed out, and how art tries to keep itself alive when the takers are at the door.
What you might want to know about They
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In a near-future England, mobs known only as They are erasing art, books, and the artists who make them.
They was written by Kay Dick, published in 1977 by Faber & Faber, Limited.
They is 128 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, They takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
They is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.