My novel has a provisional title and blurb!

Of course this may change if I get a publisher interested, but here, more or less, is what you can expect.

Housing

by Judy Backhouse

It is 2050 and Johannesburg, South Africa, is a city that got it right. With comprehensive public transport replacing private cars, green spaces abound. Universal basic income and guaranteed housing leave people free to enjoy excellent public facilities. Personal peons (smarter than smartphones) and AI administrators plan for individual needs and run the city skilfully.

But the city’s success has a drawback. With simplified access to citizenship, everyone wants to live in the golden city.

Thulisile Duma runs Housing, the department that must find accommodation for arrivals in line with the city’s high standards and lofty ideals. She has no alternative but to densify the last remaining pockets of entrenched privilege: twelve leafy northern suburbs. How will Thuli and her colleagues in Housing convince the residents of those elegant enclaves to cooperate?

In the ensuing contention, Oliver Dias, the brilliant designer of the city’s AI algorithms, must investigate allegations that the peons are lying. What he learns raises a difficult moral dilemma.

This thoughtful and cosy novel previsions the workings of a benevolent city administration: a collaboration of human and machine intelligence dedicated to long-term human well-being.