The New Wilderness Synopsis
Bea's five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away. The smog and pollution of the overdeveloped, overpopulated metropolis they call home is ravaging her lungs. Bea knows she cannot stay in the City, but there is only one alternative: The Wilderness State. Mankind has never been allowed to venture into this vast expanse of untamed land. Until now.
Bea and Agnes join eighteen other volunteers who agree to take part in a radical experiment. They must slowly learn how to live in the unpredictable, often dangerous Wilderness, leaving no trace on their surroundings in their quest to survive. But as Agnes embraces this new existence, Bea realises that saving her daughter's life might mean losing her in ways she hadn't foreseen.
At once a blazing lament of our contempt for nature and a deeply humane portrayal of motherhood, The New Wilderness is an extraordinary, urgent novel from a celebrated new literary voice.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780861540372 |
| Publication date: |
13th August 2020 |
| Author: |
Diane Cook |
| Publisher: |
Oneworld Publications |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| 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)
