THE DROUGHT - Softcover

Ballard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0586089969 ISBN 13: 9780586089965

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2014

Synopsis

With a new introduction by M. John Harrison and a striking new cover design from the artist Stanley Donwood, this acclaimed cult novel sees human existence threatened by devastating climate change.

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.

About this title

Review:

‘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

From the Back Cover:

"All we know for certain is that the novels of Ballard will not be written, could not be guessed at by anyone else."
MARTIN AMIS

'Ransom climbed up on the jetty and gazed down at the houseboat, stranded with all his hopes on the bleached shore. He brushed the dust off his sleeves and trousers, looking out at the mud flats rising from the centre of the lake. At his feet the swollen body of the dog was blurred by the heat, and for a moment the whole landscape seemed to be covered with corpses. The dead fish rotated slowly from their hooks in the drying sheds, and a spasm of dizziness made Ransom retch emptily...'

"One of the few genuine surrealists this country has produced, the possessor of a terrifying and exhilarating imagination."
GUARDIAN

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0586089969
• ISBN 13: 9780586089965
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256