Absolution: A Southern Reach Novel (The Southern Reach Series, 4) - Softcover

VanderMeer, Jeff

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250397804 ISBN 13: 9781250397805

Publisher: Picador, 2025

Synopsis

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Locus Awards Finalist

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE YEAR:
The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York magazine, Time, Kirkus, Literary Hub, Goodreads

Featuring a new introduction by award-winning author Julia Armfield.

Absolution opens decades before Area X forms, with a science expedition whose mysterious end suggests terrifying consequences for the future―and marks the Forgotten Coast as a high priority for Central, the shadowy federal agency that monitors extraordinary threats.

Many years later, the Forgotten Coast files wind up in the hands of a washed-up Central operative, Old Jim. He starts pulling a thread that reveals a long, troubling record of government agents meddling with forces they clearly cannot comprehend.

Old Jim’s investigation culminates in the first Central expedition into what has now been labeled Area X. A border has come down, and a full team has been assembled to find Area X’s “off switch” somewhere in the volatile, dangerous terrain that has defied all attempts to be explored, mapped, or controlled.

Absolution converges the past, present, and future in unnerving, ecstatic, and mind-bending ways. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.

About this title

About the Authors

Jeff VanderMeer is the New York Times bestselling author of Hummingbird Salamander, the Borne novels, the Southern Reach series, the Ambergris trilogy, and Veniss Underground. He writes widely about issues relating to climate change and the environment.

Julia Armfield is the author of the novels Private Rites and Our Wives Under the Sea, which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror and Best Debut Novel, and the story collection salt slow. Her work has been published in Granta, Lighthouse, Analog Magazine, Neon, and Best British Short Stories 2019 and 2021. She is the winner of the White Review Short Story Prize and a Pushcart Prize, and she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Awards in 2019. She lives and works in London.

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250397804
• ISBN 13: 9781250397805
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480