Bad Nature
A Novel
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- ¥1,700
発行者による作品情報
Armed with a terminal diagnosis, a grudge, and a rental car, Hester sets out to fulfill her lifelong dream of killing her father in this brilliantly subversive and bleakly funny debut novel.
“Bad Nature shows we’re getting selfishness all wrong. As uproariously funny as a takedown of our deadly society can be, the novel is also an urgent call to exchange possession for belonging.”
—Alissa Nutting, The New York Times
When Hester is diagnosed with terminal cancer on her fortieth birthday, she knows immediately what she must do: abandon her possessions and drive to California to kill her estranged father. With no friends or family tying her to the life she’s built in New York City, she quits her wildly lucrative job in corporate law and starts driving west. She hasn’t made it far when she runs into John, an environmental activist in need of a ride to different superfund sites across the United States. From five-star Midwestern hotels to cultish Southwestern compounds, the two slowly make their way across the country. But will the revelations they experience along the way dissuade Hester from her goal?
Ragingly singular and surprisingly moving, Bad Nature is a story of stunning detours and twists until its final destination. Part road-trip novel, part revenge tale, part lament for our ongoing ecological crisis, it’s ultimately a deft examination of the indulgence of holding grudges, moral ambivalence, and the eternal possibility of redemption.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Courage debuts with the devilishly alluring tale of a terminally ill New Yorker who embarks on a road trip to kill her abusive and long-estranged father. Hester, a high-paid corporate lawyer, has just turned 40 when she receives a breast cancer diagnosis and is told she has six months to live. Following a sleepless night, she reflects on how she was "always going to kill my father," ever since she was 13 and her parents separated. An artist, he now lives in Death Valley, Calif., with his new wife. After hitting the road, Hester picks up a hitchhiker named John, whose punk attire reminds her of her college boyfriend, prompting her to pay a visit to him in Pittsburgh. Hester's memories and her cross-country progress meld into a hazy dream logic, and she wonders if John, a photographer documenting Superfund sites, is merely a "figment," though she sees him again after crossing Indiana, and agrees to drive him to a former ammunition factory. Along the way, she reflects on her polluter clients' quiet settlements with the EPA. The layered narrative grows intriguingly complex as Hester approaches her destination. Readers will find this a surprisingly moving portrait of a deeply wounded woman.
