Eradication

Reviews / Votes

In Eradication, Jonathan Miles tackles the brutal paradoxes of ecological conservation with both unflinching clarity and comedic flair. When saving an imperilled Eden means eliminating [sacrificing?] one species - whose only crime is to "refuse to stop living"- to protect dozens more, there are no easy answers. A deft, unsettling exploration of what it means to play God -- Maria Reva, author of Endling Beautifully weird, eerie, unexpected - a story for our times, and all powered by the writer's tremendous narrative imagination -- Kevin Barry, author of The Heart in Winter A work of genius. From the beginning Adi is an endearing castaway of sorts, marooned from his former life, well-employed but hopelessly ill-suited to the grim job at hand. But strangely the best possible witness to his own (our own) role in the natural and unnatural order, whatever that may be. What struck me is the way Miles can pivot seamlessly, symphonically, from a fist-gnawing comedy of errors to a heartbreaking requiem for a habitat, a world, a near-extinct Reed Warbler, a son, resolving into a shocking and defiant denouement. Eradication is a beautiful and devastating novel. -- Luke Kennard Miles's taut, powerful fable pits an everyman against seemingly insurmountable environmental and personal problems. * Shelf Awareness * [Eradication] blew me out of my socks. . . . Short and powerful . . . The second I finished it, I immediately reread it. * Susan Casey, author of Voices in the Ocean * Excellent * New York Times * Urgent and lyrical * NPR * Both dark and funny . . . This is one for the ages * Elizabeth Gilbert * Complex, funny and sad, it is full of big ideas about planet, place and both social and ecological hierarchy. Just brilliant. * Marie Claire * Fables are so back . . . The story that follows could be seen as an allegory for corporations playing god with nature, for the treatment of immigrants, or any number of other readings. In fact, you might feel the urge to immediately re-read it. The interplay of the moss, basalt and (remaining) cloud forest of the island with the ugly human instincts which have arrived there is deftly conducted, the meditations on failing to 'save' something hit with real impact and the final pages are just about as satisfying as you can get. * Shortlist * An instant classic . . . Hamlet but with goats * The Washington Post * Engaging and speedy * Strong Words Magazine * Gutsy and visceral . . . Goes from blackly comic to cathartically upsetting, all told with a tight springy energy. * The Times * Clever * Literary Review *