Extinctions
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Professor Frederick Lothian, retired engineer, world expert on concrete and connoisseur of modernist design, has quarantined himself from life by moving to a retirement village. Surrounded and obstructed by the debris of his life, he is determined to be miserable, but is tired of his existence and of the life he has chosen.
When a series of unfortunate incidents forces him and his neighbour, Jan, together, he begins to realise the damage done by the accumulation of a lifetime's secrets and lies, and to comprehend his own shortcomings. Finally, Frederick Lothian has the opportunity to build something meaningful for the ones he loves.
Humorous, poignant and galvanising, this is a novel about all kinds of extinction - natural, racial, national and personal - and what we can do to prevent them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilson's American debut artfully portrays the nuances of death and extinction through its characters' reluctant self-examinations. Sixty-nine-year-old Frederick Lothian resents living in a retirement village near Melbourne, but his wife has died, and although his daughter, Caroline, lives nearby, she often travels to gather material for an exhibit of extinct animals. Frederick and Caroline are both submerged in regrets about their family's disconnections: Frederick ruing his past preoccupation with work; Caroline wondering about how she came to be adopted and the other family she has out there. Caroline is on a quest to shed light on the atrocities of human destruction on the animal kingdom (such as the American bison), while Frederick's own history as an engineer, professor, husband, and father provides grist for a disturbing journey of self-reflection, even as he tries to resist: "Why was he digging up what was done when he'd just have to go bury it again?" Frederick's introspection is shaken by Jan, another resident of St. Sylvan Village, who is as challenging as she is helpful. Unearthing the human need to feel connection to others, this contemplative novel skillfully delves into Frederick and Caroline's psyches, resulting in a potent depiction of loneliness and contact.)
