The New Wilderness
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
'THE ENVIRONMENTAL NOVEL OF OUR TIMES.' Lemn Sissay, Booker Prize judge
From a critically acclaimed author comes a searing novel about maternal love pushed to the brink by environmental crisis
'Brutal and beautiful in equal measure' (Emily St. John Mandel)
Bea's daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away, her lungs ravaged by the smog and pollution of the overpopulated metropolis they call home.
The only alternative is to build a life in the vast expanse of untamed land known as The Wilderness State. No one has been allowed to venture here before. That is all about to change. But as Bea soon discovers, saving her daughter's life might mean losing her in ways she hadn't foreseen.
Passionate and exhilarating, The New Wilderness is the story of a mother's fight to save her daughter in a world she can no longer call her own.
Longlisted for the DUBLIN Literary Award 2022 * A Guardian Best Science Fiction Book of the Year * A 'Best Book of the Year 2020' according to BBC Culture * An Irish Times Best Debut Fiction of 2020
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this wry, speculative debut novel (after the collection Man v. Nature), Cook envisions a crowded and polluted near future in which only one natural area remains, the Wilderness State. Twenty people volunteer for a government experiment in how humans fare in the wilderness it's been so long since anyone tried that no one remembers. Among the volunteers are Glen, "an important person" at a university; his wife, Bea; and Bea's daughter, Agnes, and they, along with the others, collectively called "The Community," learn to eke out a precarious existence hunting with bows and arrows, tanning animal hides, and negotiating dangerous terrain. As the years pass unmarked other than with Bea noticing a fourth annual appearance of violet blossoms, the volunteers gradually abandon their commitments to the study, though they remain expected to obey rules enforced by Rangers never stay in one place longer than seven days, never leave a trace as members die off. More waitlisted refugees, called Newcomers, arrive from the city, and Bea perseveres, driven by hope for Agnes's future. Cook powerfully describes the Community members' transformation from city folk to primal beings, as they become fierce, cunning, and relentless in their struggle for survival and freedom, such as when Bea faces off with a mother coyote. Cook's unsettling, darkly humorous tale explores maternal love and man's disdain for nature with impressive results.
