The Drought
Published on 29. October 2009
240 pages
978-0-00-732183-4 (ISBN)
Description
By the bestselling author of 'Cocaine Nights' and 'Super-Cannes' - the world is threatened by dramatic climate change in this highly acclaimed and influential novel.
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 despair.
Remarkable for its prescience and the originality of its vision, The Drought is a work of major importance from the early career of one of Britain's most acclaimed novelists.
This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard's works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Ned Beauman, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.
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 despair.
Remarkable for its prescience and the originality of its vision, The Drought is a work of major importance from the early career of one of Britain's most acclaimed novelists.
This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard's works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Ned Beauman, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.
Reviews / Votes
'The terrifying thing about Ballard is his logic; is this science fiction or history written ahead of its time?' Len Deighton'More intelligent and more strange than almost any other novel' Brian Aldiss
'At a time when we live with constant warnings of a world destroyed by global warming, it is easy to forget that writers such as Ballard were exploring the fear of global blight nearly forty years ago' The Times
'It is weird; it is grotesque; it is magnificently Gothic' Sunday Times
'A strange and wonderful book' Guardian
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Reflowable
File size
1,54 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-00-732183-4 (9780007321834)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
J. G. Ballard was born in 1930 in Shanghai. After internment in a civilian prison camp, his family returned to England in 1946. His 1984 bestseller 'Empire of the Sun' won the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His controversial novel Crash was made into a film by David Cronenberg. His autobiography 'Miracles of Life' was published in 2008, and a collection of interviews with the author, 'Extreme Metaphors', will be published in 2012. J. G. Ballard passed away in 2009.
