Lark Ascending
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4.2 • 20 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Southern Book Prize for Fiction * Winner of a Nautilus Award (Gold)
A timely, powerful story of survival set in the not-too-distant future that Margaret Renkl (Late Migrations) calls “a beautiful book...shot through with such tenderness and humanity, such love and courage and beauty and hope, that it feels almost like a prayer.”
With fires devastating much of America, Lark and his family first leave their home in Maryland for Maine. But as the country increasingly falls under the grip of religious nationalism, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe, not just from physical disasters but also persecution. The family secures a place on a crowded boat headed to Ireland, the last place on earth rumored to be accepting American refugees.
Upon arrival, it turns out that the safe harbor of Ireland no longer exists either—and Lark, the sole survivor of the trans-Atlantic voyage, must disappear into the countryside. As he runs for his life, Lark finds two equally lost and desperate souls: one of the last remaining dogs, who becomes his closest companion, and a fierce, mysterious woman in search of her lost son. Together they form a makeshift family and attempt to reach Glendalough, a place they believe will offer protection. But can any community provide the safety that they seek?
Lark Ascending is a moving and unforgettable story of friendship and bravery, and even more, a story of the ongoing fight to protect our personal freedoms and find our shared humanity, from a writer at the peak of his powers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this brutal yet hopeful dystopian, House (Southernmost) creates a day-after-tomorrow scenario in which fires have devastated the globe, the U.S. has been taken over by religious extremists called the Fundies, and Ireland has become a place of sanctuary. That's where 20-year-old Lark and his parents are headed in a yacht filled with refugees from North America. But as they near land, they find the border has been closed and are attacked. Lark is the only survivor. He ventures inland—before his mother died in the violence, she said to walk to Glendalough, an old monastic settlement. On the way, he hooks up with a stray dog, Seamus, and a rifle-toting widow, Helen, who is in search of her missing son. The trio gets caught up in a war between the Nays (who are opposed to everything) and the Resistance. They pick up Ronan, the young daughter of a bounty hunter, whose presence only complicates matters for the three. House's dystopia is an overly familiar one, slipstreaming behind Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, though the author fearlessly leans into his dark vision and adds texture with flashbacks to Lark's early years and chapters narrated from Seamus's point of view. The result is a fiercely visceral reading experience.
