Afterland
The gripping feminist thriller from the author of Apple TV’s Shining Girls
-
-
3.5 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- £4.99
-
- £4.99
Publisher Description
THE INTELLIGENT NEW POST-APOCALYPTIC THRILLER FROM THE AUTHOR BEHIND BRAND NEW APPLE TV HIT SHINING GIRLS
'A smartly written thriller that opens with a satisfying bang . . . splendid' STEPHEN KING
'Powerful and intelligent' GUARDIAN
'A major, major talent' GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
_______
A WORLD OF WOMEN
A MOTHER AND SON ON THE RUN
Three years after a virus wiped out most men on earth, Cole's son, Miles, is one of the rare survivors.
Yet in this changed world, there are women who would kill to get their hands on that most prized commodity - a living boy.
Getting Miles to safety means crossing America with deadly pursuers hot on their heels - including Cole's own sister, Billie.
But if there are some who will commit any crime to possess Miles, Cole must face some terrible choices to protect her son . . .
_______
The powerful and intelligent new thriller from the author of Richard and Judy bestseller The Shining Girls and the prize-winning Zoo City
Included in 'Best Books of Summer 2020' in Elle, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly and Oprah Magazine
_______
'Bowstring-taut, visceral, and incredibly timely: Beukes's plague-tale is a parable about the glory and terror of Americanism in times of calamity' Cory Doctorow
'A fast-moving thriller [that] splices gut-punching action sequences and feminist gender politics with an impressively light touch. Bubbles with big ideas. This intelligent speculative novel about a pandemic feels alarmingly close to home' Metro
'Afterland is that rare creature, a ripping tale that neither shies away from big questions nor interesting answers' New Scientist
'Lauren Beukes is a writer with a startling imagination, and a masterful ability to rewrite the rules of whatever genre she turns to' Ben Winters, author of Underground Airlines and Golden State
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this intriguing and all too timely near-future thriller from South African author Beukes (The Shining Girls), human culgoa virus, "a highly contagious flu that turns into an aggressive prostate cancer in men and boys," kills more than 99% of the world's male population within six months of its outbreak. The global response to the disease includes a ban on pregnancies until science can prevent the virus from afflicting future generations. Miles, a healthy 12 year old, has been held by the Department of Men in California's Napa Valley, where healthy young males are being guarded for their safety, until his mother, Cole, frees him in a violent encounter that leaves her sister, Billie, seriously injured. Cole disguises Miles as a girl, and they embark on a perilous odyssey aimed at escaping the U.S. for Cole's native South Africa. After Billie recovers, she sets off in pursuit of Cole and Miles so that she can sell her nephew's sperm for millions on the black market. Though Beukes's worldbuilding isn't on the level of The Handmaid's Tale, in which a pandemic renders most women infertile, this is a worthy addition to the pandemic fiction subgenre.
