The New Wilderness: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020

The New Wilderness: Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2020

‘THE ENVIRONMENTAL NOVEL OF OUR TIMES.’ Lemn Sissay, Booker Prize judge From an acclaimed Guardian First Book Award finalist comes a debut novel ‘brutal and beautiful in equal measure’ (Emily St. John Mandel) Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize 2020 Bea’s five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away. The smog and pollution of the overdeveloped, overpopulated metropolis they call home is ravaging her lungs. Bea knows she cannot stay in the City, but there is only one alternative: The Wilderness State. Mankind has never been allowed to venture into this vast expanse of untamed land. Until now. Bea and Agnes join eighteen other volunteers who agree to take part in a radical experiment. They must slowly learn how to live in the unpredictable, often dangerous Wilderness, leaving no trace on their surroundings in their quest to survive. But as Agnes embraces this new existence, Bea realises that saving her daughter’s life might mean losing her in ways she hadn’t foreseen. At once a blazing lament of our contempt for nature and a deeply humane portrayal of motherhood, The New Wilderness is an extraordinary, urgent novel from a celebrated new literary voice.

Short-listed for Booker Prize 2020. Long-listed for Aspen Words Literary Prize 2020.

FA 813.6

Diane Cook – Oneworld Publications