The New Wilderness
A Novel
Book - 2020
"Bea's five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away, consumed by the smog and pollution of the overdeveloped metropolis that most of the population now calls home. If they stay in the city, Agnes will die. There is only one alternative: the Wilderness State, the last swath of untouched, protected land, where people have always been forbidden. Bea, Agnes, and eighteen others volunteer to live in the Wilderness State, guinea pigs in an experiment to see if humans can exist in nature without destroying it. Living as nomadic hunter-gatherers, they slowly and painfully learn to survive in an unpredictable, dangerous land, bickering and battling for power and control as they betray and save one another. But as Agnes embraces the wild freedom of this new existence, Bea realizes that saving her daughter's life means losing her in a different way. The farther they get from civilization, the more their bond is tested in astonishing and heartbreaking ways."--Publisher's description.
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Publisher:
New York, New York : Harper, [2020]
Copyright Date:
©2020
ISBN:
9780062333131
0062333135
0062333135
Branch Call Number:
Science Fiction F Coo
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Add a CommentFascinating read, however it was too much for me emotionally. I usually love this genre. Station Eleven was one of my favorite reads this year. But I had panic attacks while reading this one and had to stop. Very powerful.
Rich storytelling - well written and immersive.
This is one of those books that will stick with me...It will appeal to fans of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. Dark, haunting, and brutal.
I await an author with the gravitas of Atwood where the plot will be fully developed and the true sense of dread will be unbearable. I don't anticipate movie rights. Nice enough for a first offering. Not as engaging as her previous gig on This American Life.
When an environmental dystopia seems all too possible....
The author creates an intriguing world where survival is not a given. Ultimately a complicated mother/daughter relationship story, which many of us can relate to.
A breathtaking beauty of a book. Reminiscent of The Book of M and Station 11; the world has changed in ways that are not completely defined. A woman and her husband and daughter are part of a small, select group of people sent to live in the last Wilderness area as part of a loose "experiment" that is never really explained. Despite the physical difficulties of living in the wild with no access to stores, healthcare, or permanent structures (the rules of the experiment have the group living a nomadic lifestyle), the people in the wilderness feel incredibly lucky to be there compared to how bad things are in the City - which seems to currently be the only other viable place for people to live. The wilderness setting is important to the story because it helps define their characters, but this book is about relationships. Relationships between a mother and daughter, mostly, but also between members of a group with disparate personalities and clashing goals. It's both heart-rending and utterly relatable.