The Drought
Published on 17. April 2001
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-0-00-711518-1 (ISBN)
Description
A key title from the author of 'Cocaine Nights', 'Empire of the Sun' and 'Crash'.
Water. Man's most precious commodity is a luxury of the past. Radioactive waste from years of industrial dumping has caused the sea to form a protective skin strong enough to devastate the earth it once sustained. And while the remorseless sun beats down on the dying land, civilization itself begins to crack. Violence erupts and insanity reigns as the remnants of mankind struggle for survival in a worldwide desert of despairs.
Water. Man's most precious commodity is a luxury of the past. Radioactive waste from years of industrial dumping has caused the sea to form a protective skin strong enough to devastate the earth it once sustained. And while the remorseless sun beats down on the dying land, civilization itself begins to crack. Violence erupts and insanity reigns as the remnants of mankind struggle for survival in a worldwide desert of despairs.
Reviews / Votes
'The experience Mr Ballard offers is mystical...It is weird; it is grotesque; it is magnificently Gothic.' Sunday Times'By arranging a world drought to kill off the majority of people, he brings his characters to a state of timeless, arid obsession with what is left of water and of their own selves...a sensitive, baroque study in decadence.' Daily Telegraph
'Ballard paints staggering imaginary landscapes. A very impressive book by a deeply serious writer, the originality and power of whose vision can be felt.' TLS
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-A)
Dimensions
Height: 178 mm
Width: 111 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
131 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-711518-1 (9780007115181)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Person
J. G. Ballard has been at the forefront of modern British fiction writing for over three decades. He was born in 1930 in Shanghai, China, where his father was a businessman. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he and his family were placed in a civilian prison camp. They returned to England in 1946. His acclaimed 1984 novel Empire of the Sun, based on his experiences in the prison camp, won the Guardian Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.