The New Wilderness Synopsis
'THE ENVIRONMENTAL NOVEL OF OUR TIMES.' Lemn Sissay, Booker Prize judge
From a critically acclaimed author comes a searing novel about maternal love pushed to the brink by environmental crisis
'Brutal and beautiful in equal measure' (Emily St. John Mandel)
Bea's daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away, her lungs ravaged by the smog and pollution of the overpopulated metropolis they call home.
The only alternative is to build a life in the vast expanse of untamed land known as The Wilderness State. No one has been allowed to venture here before. That is all about to change. But as Bea soon discovers, saving her daughter's life might mean losing her in ways she hadn't foreseen.
Passionate and exhilarating, The New Wilderness is the story of a mother's fight to save her daughter in a world she can no longer call her own.
Longlisted for the DUBLIN Literary Award 2022 * A Guardian Best Science Fiction Book of the Year * A 'Best Book of the Year 2020' according to BBC Culture * An Irish Times Best Debut Fiction of 2020
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780861540013 |
| Publication date: |
3rd June 2021 |
| Author: |
Diane Cook |
| Publisher: |
Oneworld an imprint of Oneworld Publications |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
398 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Action Adventure
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| Other Genres: |
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Diane Cook Press Reviews
"Could this be the great climate change novel of our time? Buzz is building fast for the epic debut novel of Diane Cook."--Entertainment Weekly
"A wonderfully imagined ... tense future-shock novel."--2020 Booker Prize Judges
An absolutely riveting and propulsive novel. Terrifying, and as real as can be. Epic in scale and story; granular and recognisable in people and place. The New Wilderness is surely an instant classic in our stories of survival, sovereignty and adaptation. Cook's writing is so sure-footed, prescient and trustworthy, it's all the reader can do to follow her. For fans of Ling Ma's Severance and Hernan Diaz's In the Distance, and many, many readers in between.--Caoilinn Hughes (Orchid & the Wasp/The Wild Laughter)
The New Wilderness is a virtuosic debut, brutal and beautiful in equal measure.--Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author of STATION ELEVEN and THE GLASS HOTEL
The New Wilderness strips us of our veneer of civilisation and exposes us for what we are: driven to survive, capable of shocking cruelty and profound, fierce love. This story of what a mother does to save her daughter is unflinching, horrifying, forgiving, deeply moving, and filled with truth that stayed with this mother long after the final page.--Helen Sedgwick, author of The Comet Seekers and When the Dead Come Calling
"Violence, death, tribalism, lust, love, betrayals, wonder, genius, and courage--all are enacted in this stunningly incisive and complexly suspenseful tale akin to dystopian novels by Margaret Atwood and Claire Vaye Watkins. When Cook finally widens the lens on her characters' increasingly desperate predicament, the exposure of malignant greed, deceit, and injustice resonates with devastating impact."--Donna Seaman, Booklist (Starred Review)
