Purple Tower

The republic didn't fall in a night. It fell on a staircase — and every step was announced in advance.America, the near future. A generation of shuttered factories and evaporated pensions has curdled into the Contraction — a crash to rival 1929. Into the wound steps a construction-and-casino mogul with a purple-tinted face he insists is regal, a tower crowned in imperial violet glass, and a single...