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The New Wilderness

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The New Wilderness

By: Diane Cook
Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski
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About this listen

Shortlisted for 2020 Booker Prize

From an acclaimed Guardian First Book Award finalist comes a debut novel.

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 18 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.

©2020 Diane Cook (P)2020 W F Howes Dystopian Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Wilderness

Critic reviews

“Cook's is a fresh and vivid voice; it's unsurprising the likes of Miranda July and Roxane Gay are fans.” (Observer)

“The New Wilderness is a virtuosic debut, brutal and beautiful in equal measure.” (Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel)
All stars
Most relevant
I have to keep telling myself it’s ok and we aren’t here yet. eech, but we will be. a poignant personal story, and a truly foreboding portent.

<holds own hand in reassurance>

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Impossible to say why I liked the story without spoilers but the language was true, honest, cruel, kind and poetic. It didn't just show emotions, it moved me. I will read more of her work.

Brutal and tender.

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Didn't wrap up like I felt it should, bit abrupt ending. Worth a listen though :)

Strong start

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I found lots about this story to love. The descriptions of the settings, the post-apocalyptic feel, the way the group worked and grew and changed.

However the relationships between people and the massive gaps in the story I found very frustrating at times and the ending was disappointing to say the least.

I would read a story by this author again.

Interesting genre, frustrating story.

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I may have misinterpreted what this book was about - or I was just expecting more adventure in this dystopian novel.
Was a pleasant enough listen, but found it focusing on the mother/daughter relationship than the survival and community aspects.

A Pleasant Listen

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