I expect that this novel be on several awards And best of the year lists.
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook takes place in a dystopian, nearly apocalyptical future where civilisation, living in a giant city crumbles under climate change and pollution.
But a small group of people take part of an experiment to live in the last, vast wilderness, to demonstrate that people can live in nature without destroying it. Truly becoming nomadic hunters & gatherers, remotely monitored for any transgressions. The first half of the book follows Bea, who comes with her young daughter to the wilderness as a last chance for survival of the girl who is dying from an air pollution caused illness.
The novel is absolutely brilliant, terrifying, a study of motherly love, it is also heartbreaking with terrible betrayals, and suspenseful - all this following trekking people who have limited contact with the decaying civilisation. A story without compromise as you will notice during the hard hitting opening pages. The novel also shows how the young girl becomes more primal, raw and attuned to nature over time.
all this is not written as a survivalist pamphlet, it is much more literary in approach. In that sense it is more in the style of that great modern apocalyptic novel Station Eleven - the author of which wrote an enthusiastic blurb about The New Wilderness.
Apparently it is already being produced as a TV series, not sure if it can capture the intensity.
In short, absolutely recommend, a true discovery that will linger long in the mind.
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Beautifully written & Truly Impactful!
The New Wilderness is a book that I'm not going to forget anytime soon. I really loved the survival aspect of the story. A group of people agree to live in the final wilderness left in a world that has almost completely destroyed nature. They have an entire manual filled with rules about how they can live. They can't stay in one place for long, they must bring all trash with them, they must check in at ranger posts, the list goes on and on. When they show up at their scheduled post, and are told to head to a new post that they have never visited before, the group is set on a course that will change their lives.I really enjoyed the journey in this story. I enjoyed the character dynamics and self-discovery of the characters. I thought this was beautifully written and truly a story that will whisk you away into the pages!I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.
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Top reviews from other countries
Aloka
Gripping and brutal
Reviewed in India on October 21, 2020
Aloka
Reviewed in India on October 21, 2020
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This book attracted me the most when it made it to the booker long list and then when it was shorlisted I knew I had to read it .
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Set in the future where humans have wrecked the planet to such an extent that living in the city is impossible there is one last wilderness state where no one is allowed into until a group of 20 are introduced in it to live as nomads and where they are monitored from afar to see how they fare .
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Such a future is not unimaginable which makes it very hard hitting . Humans in the city and the group we get a closer look at , the bunch surviving in the wilderness have started to look at death as a non dramatic event and there are no emergency rooms in the city nor do the people in the wilderness shed much of a tear when one of their own dies . Their way of life in the wilderness is shown in a very brutal and vivid way .
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The focus is on ruthless survival and how these people become part of the land and the animals. How they manage to survive in the wild is portrayed well. We see most of the book from the perspective of Agnes a girl who came with her mother to the wilderness. Her mother Bea left the city to come here as Agnes was very ill and would not survive there and there is an undercurrent of resentment and love throughout both conflicting each other .
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The mother daughter portrayal made more difficult under the circumstances is very well done and the book was gripping. I couldn’t put it down.
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It was not a perfect book there were too many holes so to speak in the plot that didn’t sit too well with me. Whether it deserves a Booker nod over mantel or not I cannot say or speculate but I did enjoy reading this and I am very glad it made the shortlist so that I read it.
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