Tent City: A Novel is a gripping dystopian family saga that follows the King family as a collapsing economy transforms their backyard into a refuge for the desperate, forcing them to confront loss, betrayal, and the fragile hope of survival. Author Amy L. Bernstein talks to Book Glow about the novel.

Tent City imagines an American community pushed to the brink by economic collapse. What first sparked the idea for this story?

I believe I came up with the germ of the story—about tents springing up in someone’s backyard—as far back as 2014. I don’t remember if there was an original inspiration, but I often draw ideas from the news. That germ would not leave me alone, though I didn’t begin planning the book until 2018.

The King family finds their backyard transformed into a refuge for people who have lost everything. How did you approach writing such an intense shift from ordinary life to survival mode?

This is the power of speculative fiction. All it takes is pushing reality a couple of notches in one direction or another—towards the dystopian, in this case. The book is intentionally realistic even as it perhaps exaggerates specific circumstances. I had to enter into the reality of the story—to imagine the consequences of all the events that arose. And I had to put myself in the shoes of every single character: How would this person respond to difficult circumstances?

Family relationships are at the heart of the novel. How do the pressures of crisis reshape trust, loyalty, and betrayal within the King family?

This reshaping was a major preoccupation while writing the book. It’s very important that each member of the King family gets his or her own storyline. Even though their circumstances overlap, I wanted to ensure that each had a distinct destiny. At the same time, I had to consider that they all love one another, even if they don’t express that openly. So there’s a lot that goes unsaid among and between family members. By the end, each of the Kings is in a very different place, not only geographically but also psychologically and even physically.

Many dystopian novels focus on governments or large systems, but Tent City centers on everyday people. Why was it important for you to tell the story from this perspective?

In this novel, governmental and systemic forces are definitely in play, but they are deliberately functioning in the background, while the characters’ particular storylines are foregrounded. Those forces are opaque to the reader and to the characters: Nobody know exactly what’s going wrong with the economy and why the town of Willing is collapsing. That leaves room to focus on consequences rather than causes. When systems break down, it’s people who are affected—so people are at the heart of the novel.

The setting of a tent community is both temporary and fragile. What does “Tent City” symbolize in the larger context of the novel?

I think the formation of the tent city, the fact of its existence, raises serious questions about what we owe to one another as citizens, as neighbors, as family members, and even as strangers. And this dynamic also raises questions for me around how people behave in desperate and difficult circumstances: Can we support one another through a crisis, or must we turn upon one another?

Your background as a journalist likely shaped how you view society and human behavior. How has your journalism experience influenced your fiction writing?

I’ve never quite left behind my journalist habits as a novelist. I do a fair amount of research for every novel (even the more light-hearted ones!). If I’m going to depart from the real world in certain respects—as I do in Tent City—then it’s really important that I build a world that feels enough like ours to convince the reader that these things could happen. In addition, to develop characters with rich back stories and inner lives, I need to understand the nature of their work and where they come from. Todo that convincingly, I have to do quite a bit of research.

As someone who works with writers as a book coach, how does guiding others through their creative process affect the way you approach your own storytelling?

In my work as a book coach, I always put structure first, meaning, how a story is shaped determines how well the storytelling itself unfolds—whether events are relayed in the best order, whether the pacing is varied, and so forth. Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, every book needs some kind of architecture to hold up major plot twists, big developments, a climax, and a conclusion. Perhaps due in part to my training as a book coach, I think consciously about structure even as I’m constructing a plot.

Dystopian fiction often holds up a mirror to our present moment. Were there real-world trends or events that informed the world of Tent City?

I believe the book is more timely now than when I wrote the first draft. Income inequality is causing major shifts in world cultures, including the U.S., of course. More and more people are living on the brink of economic insolvency. At the same time, lack of access to affordable housing is a growing problem, as well. These real-world trends, all reflected in the novel, have been building for some time—and continue to do so, unfortunately.

Despite the harsh circumstances in the novel, the story also hints at hope and resilience. What does survival mean to you in the context of this book?

Survival, in the aftermath of this story, means learning what truly matters to you, what you truly value, and recognizing that human connections are essential. The younger generation in the book learn these lessons the hard way, but fortunately, they come away ready to rethink what a good life plan looks like, and some of these younger characters are ready to help others—perhaps to keep more people out of future tent cities. I think too, though it’s not explicit in the book, the younger ones learn the true meaning of kindness.

After readers close the final page of Tent City, what conversation or reflection do you hope the story inspires?

How vulnerable are we, in the U.S. and elsewhere, to the tent city depicted in the novel becoming a reality in our own communities?

Can we, and should we, strengthen our community support networks so that if and when we find ourselves jobless and homeless in great numbers, we have somewhere to turn?

What do we owe to one another as citizens and neighbors during times of crisis?

Can we still alter the aspects of late-stage capitalism that make us vulnerable to devastating economic downturns?

When a family is in crisis, how can they still support one another when each family member feels overwhelmed?

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