Ruins
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 31 Mar 2026
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
From critically acclaimed, bestselling author of The Light Pirate comes a powerful, deeply resonant novel about an ambitious archaeologist in pursuit of a rare artifact from an ancient civilization that would not only change her life but potentially society at large.
“Lily Brooks-Dalton's novels are rich literary feasts." —Geraldine Brooks, bestselling author of Horse
Professor Ember Agni is a rising star in archeology, trying to balance an unfulfilling career in academia and a crumbling marriage, all while pursuing her true passion: unearthing a lost empire that no one else believes existed. Just as she’s about to give up on the ambitious expedition she spent a decade trying to fund, a message arrives from overseas. A former student claims to have found something extraordinary—an artifact that hints at the forgotten world lying beneath history’s tidy surface.
With vindication finally within reach, Ember risks everything for the sake of discovery and undertakes an odyssey that will either make her name or ruin her. Driven by unwavering faith in her vision of the past, she challenges the limits of her nation, her colleagues, and herself in order to exhume the missing pieces of how humanity began. But as she journeys deep into an untouched wilderness, in dogged pursuit of a dead civilization, she collides with the wreckage of her own life.
On the brink of either discovery or destruction, Ember must choose who she wants to be, and to what kind of world she wants to belong.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The beguiling latest from Brooks-Dalton (The Light Pirate) follows an archaeologist whose obsession with the past lays waste to her present. Ember Agni, 38, hasn't been on a dig for eight years. Biding her time at a university where she's "not well-liked" due to her lack of interest in teaching, she's married to a sweet, responsible builder with whom she has increasingly little in common, and longs to return to the field. After the first act, the reader begins to gather that the novel takes place sometime in the future following a climate disaster called the Crisis, but it's not until much later that Brooks-Dalton clarifies the setting for Ember's story line. When Ember learns that an unstable former graduate student she has sent to investigate an area forbidden by the government is on his way home with a mysterious artifact, her hopes rise, and she burns whatever bridges she can to follow in his footsteps. At this point, Brooks-Dalton shifts focus from the low-key drama of academic infighting and a crumbling marriage to startling revelations about Ember's life and the world she's living in. The adventure story is cunningly crafted, and Ember is a fascinating character: prickly, ambitious, and obsessive in her search for the truth. It adds up to a captivating mind-bender.
