Stillicide
Published on 1. October 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-78378-709-8 (ISBN)
Description
First heard on BBC Radio 4.
Water is commodified. The Water Train that serves the city increasingly at risk of sabotage.
As news breaks that construction of a gigantic Ice Dock will displace more people than first thought, protestors take to the streets and the lives of several individuals begin to interlock. A nurse on the brink of an affair. A boy who follows a stray dog out of the city. A woman who lies dying. And her husband, a marksman: a man forged by his past and fearful of the future, who weighs in his hands the possibility of death against the possibility of life.
From one of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Stillicide is a moving story of love and loss and the will to survive, and a powerful glimpse of the tangible future.
Water is commodified. The Water Train that serves the city increasingly at risk of sabotage.
As news breaks that construction of a gigantic Ice Dock will displace more people than first thought, protestors take to the streets and the lives of several individuals begin to interlock. A nurse on the brink of an affair. A boy who follows a stray dog out of the city. A woman who lies dying. And her husband, a marksman: a man forged by his past and fearful of the future, who weighs in his hands the possibility of death against the possibility of life.
From one of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Stillicide is a moving story of love and loss and the will to survive, and a powerful glimpse of the tangible future.
Reviews / Votes
As a tract of written language, [Stillicide] is close to perfect. As a repository for ideas, it is imaginative and far reaching. As a story of and for our times, it is very human, and deadly serious... blunt perfection * Guardian * How big this small book is, giving the barest details of its future world...exciting, upsetting and essential * Financial Times * Jones lets the contours of his chilly prophecy emerge in glimpses, leaving [...] plenty of white space for the reader's imagination * Metro * A tense and moving love story...high-stake miniatures that expertly convey the impression of time moving but also staying still... unforgettable * Daily Mail * I thought there were moments of beautiful poetry in this. . . A very strong atmosphere -- Laurence Scott * BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review * Twelve sparely written but moving tales of near-future water shortages and overpopulation * New Scientist * [Jones] brings tenderness and a haunting lyricism to an affecting novel...Jones is known for the perfect economy of his novels, and this is no exception, a novel whose urgent message is rendered no less powerful for the beauty of its delivery -- Welsh Book of the Month * Waterstones * A more powerful parable [...] is hard to imagine...Wonderfully pared back and impressionistic * Scotsman * A piece of superb hardboiled noir... Stillicide has an enigmatic, surging power...This is a novella that seeks to alientate us from our grip on language and from our everyday taken-for-granted understanding of reality...powerful and disturbing * New Welsh Review * Jones's book is written in a striking imagistic style that makes it vividly convincing * Sunday Times * Excellent, genre-spanning * Bookseller * Jones specialises in producing slim, perfectly crafted fiction in which not a word is spared, creating vivid characters and stories that linger long in the memory * New European *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
143 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78378-709-8 (9781783787098)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Previous edition
Person
Cynan Jones was born in 1975 near Aberaeron, Wales. He is the author of five short novels, The Long Dry, Everything I Found on the Beach, Bird, Blood, Snow, The Dig, and Cove. His work is published in over 20 countries and has won several prizes including a Betty Trask Award, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award, the Wales Book of the Year Fiction prize, and the BBC National Short Story Award. He has also written stories for radio and screen, and a collection of tales for children. Other writing has appeared in numerous publications including Granta and the New Yorker. He was elected a Fellow of the RSL in 2019.