Something New Under the Sun
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- 25,00 kr
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- 25,00 kr
Publisher Description
‘An urgent novel about our very near future, and a deeply addictive pleasure’ Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies
‘Magnificent and stunning’ Jeff VanderMeer, author of Hummingbird Salamander
‘An immense achievement. Masterful and merciless’ Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road
A bold, addictive and urgent new novel about capitalism, environmental collapse and our near future.
What is really going on?
Patrick Hamlin has come to Hollywood to see his novel be adapted for the screen, but why does he get the feeling that the film project is a smokescreen for something else? Does Cassidy Carter, the troubled starlet due to play the lead, know something he doesn’t? And what is the truth about WAT-R, the synthetic water everyone drinks in LA?
Sharply funny, alluring and devastating, Something New Under the Sun is an unmissable novel for our present moment.
‘Sun-drenched, sharply observed and swift-moving… strange and new’ Guardian
‘Profoundly affecting – somehow both funny and deeply unsettling’ Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
‘Expertly conjures California noir filtered through the ambient and not-so-ambient apocalypse’ Emma Cline, author of The Girls
A WHITE REVIEW BOOK OF THE YEAR • A LIT HUB BEST BOOK OF 2021
Reviews
‘Alexandra Kleeman expertly conjures California noir filtered through the ambient and not-so-ambient apocalypse’ Emma Cline, author of The Girls
‘Written with tremendous verve and flair, Something New Under the Sun is both an urgent novel about our very near future and a deeply addictive pleasure. Constantly surprising and endlessly inventive, every page is saturated with wit, intelligence, and extraordinary prose. Kleeman is a phenomenon, one of the most brilliant and gifted writers at work today’ Katie Kitamura, author of A Separation
‘With this novel, Alexandra Kleeman confirms her place as one of the major writers of her generation. Reading it is like looking at a familiar room through warped glass: What you perceive is distorted and unsettling while remaining curiously beautiful’ Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias
‘A richly rendered ecological novel, characterized not only by how it sets the landscape but also by the fact that the landscape is quite often allowed to run the show. Kleeman is phenomenal when it comes to place writing. Like many of the characters in her book, I got lost inside her scene-setting, arid and wild, happy to let her drive me wherever her genius brain thought we should go. This is a book I’ll be thinking about for years to come’ Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth
‘An immense achievement. A masterful and merciless skewering of our times, rendered with such grace I couldn't put it down’ Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum Road
‘…Kleeman is a writer working with far more flair than most. Her novels critique the comfortable indifference of life under late capitalism and, as such, are quite the opposite: observant, unnerving and bold’ i Newspaper
‘Profoundly affecting –somehow both funny and deeply unsettling’ Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kleeman's ranging and ambitious latest (after Intimations) imagines a climate-ravaged near-future California. Novelist Patrick Hamlin has just arrived in Los Angeles to assist with the adaptation of his melancholy novel Elsinore Lane, based on his father's death. Hollywood calculations, though, quickly distort the story beyond recognition. Worse, the producers have cast in the leading role unpredictable former child star Cassidy Carter, whose career is on the downturn. Even worse yet, Patrick is made a production assistant and tasked with chauffeuring the unpredictable Cassidy to and from set. Meanwhile, Patrick's wife, Alison, who previously suffered a breakdown, takes her daughter to an Upstate New York eco-retreat; California has recently converted to using WAT-R, a synthetic water product; and green vans make rounds to pick up sufferers of a mysterious new dementia. Cassidy and Patrick are then drawn in by conspiracy theories involving a supposed link between WAT-R and Cassidy's old show, Kassi Keene: Kid Detective, and Patrick streams episodes looking for clues. While a few plot twists are telegraphed, the action is propulsive and entertaining even as the horrors of climate change smolder around every corner. Readers will be captivated by this intelligent, rip-roaring story.
