In fifteen-year-old Adrian Havoc's world, Homestate rules every aspect of society: identity cards need to be carried at all times, evolution is a forbidden topic of discussion, and religious education is enforced in daily "rapture" doses. If life weren't hard enough, now come the threats that the end of the world - SHIFT - is quickly approaching. But Adrian refuses to accept things as they are. He sets out for the toxic Deadlands on a trip that may very well alter the course of the universe. In this powerful, thought-provoking and by turns humorous novel, Charlotte Agell uncovers the painful consequences of war and uncertain governments in an imagined - yet disturbingly realistic - world.