Candor

Candor is a model community – protector of society’s highest standards, solver of family problems, trouble-free. Like all things which seem too good to be true, Candor is built on a lie – one in which brainwashing messages are used to control thought and behaviour, eradicating independence and individual personalities – a sinister conformity.

Oscar Banks’ father founded the town to paper over the cracks in his own life, his inability to help his wife come to terms with the death of their eldest son, his grief and anger at her departure. No-one leaves Candor now, no ripples disturb the smooth millponds which pass for lives.

Oscar has managed to remain intact by developing counter-messages to protect his thought-processes and he exploits his discovery by providing escape routes – at a very high price – for those who want to leave before it is too late. His plans are sabotaged when he falls in love with a rebellious new arrival, Nia Silva, and cannot bear to see her personality destroyed by his father’s programming. The ending of the book, when Oscar sacrifices himself to give Nia her freedom, is a poignant and powerful reminder of the price we must pay for conformity at all costs. Bachorz presents the reader with extremes, as only then can we see the shocking implications of what we might have thought we wanted society to be.