Girlfriend on Mars
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4.6 • 7 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 STEPHEN LEACOCK MEMORIAL MEDAL FOR HUMOUR* *LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE* *LONGLISTED FOR THE FOREST OF READING EVERGREEN AWARD* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 ALBERTA LITERARY AWARDS GEORGES BUGNET AWARD FOR FICTION*
“A sharp, funny take on capitalism, climate change, and our lifelong mission to be loved.” —People
A funny, poignant, and page-turning debut novel that skewers billionaire-funded space travel in a love story of interplanetary proportions.
Amber Kivinen is moving to Mars. Or at least, she will be if she wins a chance to join MarsNow. She and twenty-three reality TV contestants from around the world—including a handsome Israeli, an endearing fellow Canadian, and an assortment of science nerds and wannabe influencers—are competing for two seats on the first human-led mission to Mars, sponsored by billionaire Geoff Task. Meanwhile Kevin, Amber’s boyfriend of fourteen years, was content going nowhere until Amber left him—and their hydroponic weed business—behind. As he tends to the plants growing in their absurdly overpriced Vancouver basement apartment, Kevin tunes in to find out why the love of his life is so determined to leave the planet with somebody else.
An audaciously original debut from an “immensely talented writer” (Emily St. John Mandel), Girlfriend on Mars is at once a satirical indictment of our pursuit of fame and wealth amidst environmental crisis, and an exploration of humanity’s deepest longing, greatest quest, and most enduring cliché: love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Willis braids reality television and the climate crisis with billionaire-sponsored space travel in her breezy speculative debut. Amber Kivinen and Kevin Watkins, both 31, have been dating since they were teens, and they now run a marijuana-growing business out of their Vancouver apartment. In Kevin's view, they've "committed to going nowhere," so he's surprised when Amber decides to participate in a reality television program, "a Survivor-meets-Star Trek amalgam," where two winners will be rocketed to Mars. Amber's facility with hydroponics makes her well suited for the MarsNow mission, the brainchild of billionaire Geoff Task, a combination Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, whom Kevin describes as "slim and pale, with a regal neck only a guillotine could love." As Amber advances further in the competition she begins to fall for hunky Adam, who, as the child of Orthodox Jewish settlers in the West Bank, can relate to Amber's conservative Christian upbringing. Kevin, likewise, begins a fledgling relationship with the couple's friend Bronwyn, a white woman who wears her hair in dreadlocks. Willis keeps up a light tone and a fast pace even while getting deep into the science behind the Mars voyage, and her satire yields plenty of clever insights on celebrity culture. Readers are in for a treat.
