The Hate Extractor

Atlas Brown is a connoisseur of bad days.

Today, for instance, he is alone, hungry, and trapped beside a gasholder that contains all the hate in the world. This is not how it was supposed to go. Dr Brown, the scientist who trapped the particle that spread hate like a virus and ended war forever, should by now be famous, his face on the cover of Time magazine, publishers fighting over the rights to his memoir, chat shows and podcasts queuing up to interview him.

But something went wrong. He didn’t save the world. If anything, he made it worse. Instead of ushering in a new era of enlightenment, his hate extractor machine stripped humankind of its spark. Humanity’s drive, creativity, and its collaborative spirit have vanished. It has become a species that no longer cares whether it survives.

On good days, he’s hopeful this is a blip, that things will get better. But today isn’t one of them. Because his sole visitor, his only source of food and company, is days late and might never return. Because the noises outside might be a local militia circling. Because his talking reflection might be real. And because the imaginary academics and the parliament of owls above his head might be on to something. Maybe this is all his fault. And maybe the woman he loved was killed because of him.

“unsettlingly brilliant” Amazon Reviewer.

“Black Mirror meets Kafka” Amazon Reviewer.

“Uncomfortably prescient” Amazon Reviewer.

By turns haunting and bitterly funny, The Hate Extractor is a fable of genius undone by its own solution — for readers of Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, and anyone who suspects humanity needs hate as much as it needs love.

Sef Hughes was born in Stirling, Scotland, has lived in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Pittsburgh, Amsterdam and Eindhoven, and is currently hiding out in York, England. His fiction has been published in Litro USA and Popshot Quarterly. Salt Water, his first collection of short stories, was published in 2019. The Hate Extractor is his debut novel.