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Parcourir la terre disparue
En 1873, Samson, chasseur de bisons fraîchement immigré, parcourt les Grandes Plaines, plein d’optimisme devant son nouveau pays. En 1975, Bea, adolescente enceinte et mutique, arpente le même paysage, et finit par atterrir dans une institution où un psychiatre s’efforce de déchiffrer ses dessins. En 2027, après une série de tornades dévastatrices, un ingénieur abandonne son existence routinière pour concevoir une ville flottante sur le site de ce qui fut La Nouvelle-Orléans, où il fonde avec sa fille poétesse une communauté de rêveurs et de vagabonds. En 2073, la Terre est entièrement noyée, et la jeune Moon n’a entendu à son propos que des histoires. Vivant sur Mars, elle s’interroge sur l’avenir de son espèce.
Parcourir la Terre disparue est l’histoire d’une famille, de celles et ceux qui, génération après génération, héritent d’un même rêve. Avec la même pugnacité et le même espoir, ils tentent de survivre sur une Terre qui se couvre lentement d’eau. Une aventure pleine de résilience et d’espérance.
Parcourir la Terre disparue est l’histoire d’une famille, de celles et ceux qui, génération après génération, héritent d’un même rêve. Avec la même pugnacité et le même espoir, ils tentent de survivre sur une Terre qui se couvre lentement d’eau. Une aventure pleine de résilience et d’espérance.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published May 31, 2022
216 people are currently reading
12726 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 370 reviews
August 12, 2022
What a remarkable novel!
A week ago I wrote in a review about that indescribable ache you feel when you're captivated by a story - that particular feeling of intense longing and sadness (because you know it will end). It is a bittersweet ache that makes the reader long to curl up inside the book's pages and live there for a while.
Novels like this are scarce, which makes them all the better. To have read two books like this in the space of two weeks is a first for me and I feel incredibly lucky to live in a world where such books and their writers exist.
Walk the Vanished Earth is a cli-fi novel and is written over the span of two centuries. Human-induced climate change has destroyed life as we know it. The story moves seamlessly between different times, places, and characters. Books written like this are sometimes disjointed and hard to follow but this? This is magnificent.
Each time I finished reading about one character, I would think how the next couldn't possibly be any better, and I wished the author would have written the rest of the book about them.
But! A couple pages into the next character and that one became my favourite! Every time.
This is a quiet book, the kind I like most. It is introspective, exploring the characters' inner lives as much as the settings they find themselves in.
From a prairie in Kansas in 1873, to a community built atop a New Orleans swallowed by the sea, to a colony on Mars in 2073, Walk the Vanished Earth takes the reader on an epic journey.
I loved this book. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I finished it two days ago but I want to read it all over again.
It is brilliant and if you enjoy quiet stories that show how human civilization could soon become; or stories that follow multiple characters across decades, weaving their lives together; or stories that are just so well-written you wonder why it is that most current books get published at all.... do not pass up this one.
CW: (child abuse, hunting)
A week ago I wrote in a review about that indescribable ache you feel when you're captivated by a story - that particular feeling of intense longing and sadness (because you know it will end). It is a bittersweet ache that makes the reader long to curl up inside the book's pages and live there for a while.
Novels like this are scarce, which makes them all the better. To have read two books like this in the space of two weeks is a first for me and I feel incredibly lucky to live in a world where such books and their writers exist.
Walk the Vanished Earth is a cli-fi novel and is written over the span of two centuries. Human-induced climate change has destroyed life as we know it. The story moves seamlessly between different times, places, and characters. Books written like this are sometimes disjointed and hard to follow but this? This is magnificent.
Each time I finished reading about one character, I would think how the next couldn't possibly be any better, and I wished the author would have written the rest of the book about them.
But! A couple pages into the next character and that one became my favourite! Every time.
This is a quiet book, the kind I like most. It is introspective, exploring the characters' inner lives as much as the settings they find themselves in.
From a prairie in Kansas in 1873, to a community built atop a New Orleans swallowed by the sea, to a colony on Mars in 2073, Walk the Vanished Earth takes the reader on an epic journey.
I loved this book. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I finished it two days ago but I want to read it all over again.
It is brilliant and if you enjoy quiet stories that show how human civilization could soon become; or stories that follow multiple characters across decades, weaving their lives together; or stories that are just so well-written you wonder why it is that most current books get published at all.... do not pass up this one.
CW: (child abuse, hunting)
not-for-me-2022
October 14, 2022"He's male. He can’t be a mother...
Mothers have to be female? I asked
So say the laws of nature"
I'm not interested in a book with such a clear agenda to erase the trans & non binary folk. Hard no.
Mothers have to be female? I asked
So say the laws of nature"
I'm not interested in a book with such a clear agenda to erase the trans & non binary folk. Hard no.
June 12, 2022
When I first started this book, I had no idea what it was about. From the first, it was like walking through a museum. Every chapter was like a painting from a different period. Some bits were flat-out weird but still wonderful. I hadn’t realized that I was reading climate fiction until I was well into it, and the plot was both scary and beautiful. The whole book was filled with contrasts, and certain scenes stuck with me long after I finished.
November 13, 2022
For the first few chapters, I was so happy. It really scratched my Emily St John Mandel itch. But it could not keep up its momentum and in the end, the weird slight gender essentialist stuff and the weird descriptions of people's weight rubbed me the wrong way.
October 3, 2022
To call this novel "post-apocalyptic" is at best an oversimplification. At worst, it misses the point entirely. We live in terrifying times. We are inundated with art that reflects these times. Every novel is a time-travel novel or a pandemic novel or a political dystopia. Or whatever. Walk the Vanished Earth is all of those things (sort of, but not really). But it is so much more... it is a beating heart. It is a reminder that we, all of us, have a choice.
Bottom line: the novel is terrifying, artful, humane, articulate, passionate, considered, thoughtful, and rich.
I'm a very "heart-on-sleeve" person. Meaning, that my emotions are on the surface. So, yeah, I tend to cry or laugh or ache right out loud -- especially when it comes to art. Perhaps I'm the audience for a book like this. A book about climate. A book about the future. But also a book about mothers and children. A book about Kansas (my home). A book about men, sure, but really about women (my favorite kind of book). This book is a womb. This book is a hairbrush. This book is silence in a storm. This book is a breath and a scream.
Walk the Vanished Earth is weird. It is complex, epic. It never pretends to have any answers -- because how can we, any of us? And yet still, the book is so relatable and accessible and immediate. And pointed in the right direction, the direction of possibility. It feels like a conversation over wine sipped from tea cups. The prose is expert and effortless. Each scene so visual and realized, it feels like a film more than a novel. The lingering will be long.
There is so much genuine humanity in this book. I stopped several times to really consider what I'd just read. I re-read sections. As much as the pace demands a turn of the page, I found myself wanting to stop, to respect the author and to really let the world, the characters, the sentences sink in. I cried. A lot. I was moved. I was angry. I was hurt. But mostly I was blown away.
I could go on and on and on but the fact is, Walk The Vanished Earth is a real achievement. I can not recommend it highly enough. My words are inadequate. The writing speaks for itself.
Congrats, Erin Swan. You've written something special. And enduring.
Bottom line: the novel is terrifying, artful, humane, articulate, passionate, considered, thoughtful, and rich.
I'm a very "heart-on-sleeve" person. Meaning, that my emotions are on the surface. So, yeah, I tend to cry or laugh or ache right out loud -- especially when it comes to art. Perhaps I'm the audience for a book like this. A book about climate. A book about the future. But also a book about mothers and children. A book about Kansas (my home). A book about men, sure, but really about women (my favorite kind of book). This book is a womb. This book is a hairbrush. This book is silence in a storm. This book is a breath and a scream.
Walk the Vanished Earth is weird. It is complex, epic. It never pretends to have any answers -- because how can we, any of us? And yet still, the book is so relatable and accessible and immediate. And pointed in the right direction, the direction of possibility. It feels like a conversation over wine sipped from tea cups. The prose is expert and effortless. Each scene so visual and realized, it feels like a film more than a novel. The lingering will be long.
There is so much genuine humanity in this book. I stopped several times to really consider what I'd just read. I re-read sections. As much as the pace demands a turn of the page, I found myself wanting to stop, to respect the author and to really let the world, the characters, the sentences sink in. I cried. A lot. I was moved. I was angry. I was hurt. But mostly I was blown away.
I could go on and on and on but the fact is, Walk The Vanished Earth is a real achievement. I can not recommend it highly enough. My words are inadequate. The writing speaks for itself.
Congrats, Erin Swan. You've written something special. And enduring.
May 17, 2023
A gentle, fantastic (in the true sense of the word) novel spanning seven generations and two planets, Walk the Vanished Earth kept me guessing and engaged all the way through. It's a story of survival, both of individuals and of the human race. Erin Swan's prose is beautiful, her characters vivid and compelling. But...
This whole review is going to have spoilers, I just don't see a way around it.
Maybe scientific accuracy is beside the point and I should just enjoy it for the pretty fever dream that it is. But it feels like I'm supposed to both take this as a factual scientific warning AND a fantasy. I think one or the other could have worked.
(I received this book for free through a Goodreads giveaway.)
This whole review is going to have spoilers, I just don't see a way around it.
Maybe scientific accuracy is beside the point and I should just enjoy it for the pretty fever dream that it is. But it feels like I'm supposed to both take this as a factual scientific warning AND a fantasy. I think one or the other could have worked.
(I received this book for free through a Goodreads giveaway.)
May 17, 2023
the most beautiful and heart wrenching story of a multigenerational family spanning over a century. a family destined for fire, for sand, and for interplanetary travel. as we follow this family, earth’s delicate ecosystem becomes unfathomably unlivable. wonderfully intertwined, expertly written, and incredibly moving. an absolutely amazing read!
April 21, 2022
Erin Swan's novel (debut I believe?) is an ambitious piece of fiction. The story is told through the eyes of different people within different generations (and the table of contents reflects that). I'm going to discuss, hopefully without spoilers, some of the pros and cons of the book.
Pros: Beautiful writing. In spite of the fact that this was a post-apocolyptic/dystopia book it read like an actual fiction genre novel. Relationships, both the good and bad, mental illness, physical disability, and more are addressed with a gentle hand. Nothing seems too far out there in terms of the science fiction element of the novel and that really works well in maintaining the overall flow of the book.
Cons: The first con I have is a bit of a pro and a con. I appreciate the diversity that Erin has brought into her novel through characters from different backgrounds/origins/ethnicities. That said, I always cringe a bit when I see white authors take these backgrounds on. Thankfully, I couldn't see any co-opting of specific cultures in terms of the actions, but I did feel a bit on edge anytime I saw a reference to a specific Ojibwe legend appearing.
Is it worth a read? Definitely. Just bear in mind where the author is coming from and what choices she has made in bringing specific elements into her story.
Pros: Beautiful writing. In spite of the fact that this was a post-apocolyptic/dystopia book it read like an actual fiction genre novel. Relationships, both the good and bad, mental illness, physical disability, and more are addressed with a gentle hand. Nothing seems too far out there in terms of the science fiction element of the novel and that really works well in maintaining the overall flow of the book.
Cons: The first con I have is a bit of a pro and a con. I appreciate the diversity that Erin has brought into her novel through characters from different backgrounds/origins/ethnicities. That said, I always cringe a bit when I see white authors take these backgrounds on. Thankfully, I couldn't see any co-opting of specific cultures in terms of the actions, but I did feel a bit on edge anytime I saw a reference to a specific Ojibwe legend appearing.
Is it worth a read? Definitely. Just bear in mind where the author is coming from and what choices she has made in bringing specific elements into her story.
January 22, 2024
A generational story of people connected by both blood and as chosen family who move through an imagined alternate history/future of environmental collapse. A literary walk in the shoes of various people during pivotal moments in their lives, providing an image of both sadness for what is lost at each step and hope for what might yet emerge.
I’m usually a fan of this type of book, so I was pre-disposed to enjoy it. I did like it, but there was nothing that I fell in love with. I’m not sure what it is, but there was something missing here for me. The characters were not quite enough for me, and I was not as moved by their plight as I felt intellectually that I should be. For a similar type book, but with so much I loved, I preferred The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton.
That said, I absolutely appreciate what Swan was attempting here and I would be interested to see what she does next. Her imaginative ideas make it clear she is an author to watch.
I’m usually a fan of this type of book, so I was pre-disposed to enjoy it. I did like it, but there was nothing that I fell in love with. I’m not sure what it is, but there was something missing here for me. The characters were not quite enough for me, and I was not as moved by their plight as I felt intellectually that I should be. For a similar type book, but with so much I loved, I preferred The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton.
That said, I absolutely appreciate what Swan was attempting here and I would be interested to see what she does next. Her imaginative ideas make it clear she is an author to watch.
July 11, 2022
I was a little surprised to see how many five star ratings there were for this one because it just didn’t do it for me. The theme of climate change is super important and I thought the plot was intriguing on paper, but the way the story was written was overly confusing because of how much it jumped around. Just not for me.
February 26, 2025
Just read Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. It's much better and more succinct. This book was overly long and somewhat boring. It had an interesting premise, but I found myself comparing it to Sea of Tranquility the entire time. I couldn’t help but think how I wished I was reading that book instead.
What baffles me the most about this book is how it markets itself as a story of hope. In reality, this book has one of the bleakest storylines and endings in all of the books I’ve read lately. Sure, the bloodline has persisted throughout all these generations, but it has been mangled through incest, mental illness, and biological experimentation that resolved with an ending that only left me feeling empty, no catharsis in sight.
This book has a lot of uncomfortable, and, at times, unnecessary sexual imagery. Most egregious was one character getting into a car accident and describing his erection whilst he is lying in the wreckage. I am not a prude by any means, but I still recoiled at this line all the same, because why was that needed????? There was also plot lines of alien impregnation and incest, and it feels like it was only there for shock value rather than actual plot relevance. For those who are upset by these topics, give this book a pass.
This book deals with the recurring motif of a faceless man walking through the desert. Each character dreams of this, and it is never developed or elaborated on. It just feels like a plot device to show the characters are related, and it quickly becomes repetitive. Even when the reveal happened, it was so incredibly anticlimactic!
I worry that I may have missed the point of this novel. However, a lot of this book was just disturbing and/or boring and did not offer a lot in consolation. Most of the characters’ plot lines are never resolved. A lot of them decline over the course of the novel and some become downright despicable. The floating city, while very cool, is impractical and stupid. Eva was right all along.
I do like how the book commentates on humanity’s shortsightedness and flawed nature, but it never shows us the positives. We just see a slow, inevitable decline of both Earth and Mars, and nothing can stop it. It’s powerful and soul shattering. The ending was the best part of the novel, but by then, I just had lost all interest and it’s not even resolved in a way that inspires hope to me, even though that may have been the intent.
This is a weird and disturbing novel. It offers good insight and acceptable prose, but it is also overly long and a bit of a slog to get through. It is just also eerily similar to Sea of Tranquility, and the entire time I read this novel it just cemented my opinion of how Emily St. John Mandel was able to do so much more with less and that Sea of Tranquility is overall superior.
What baffles me the most about this book is how it markets itself as a story of hope. In reality, this book has one of the bleakest storylines and endings in all of the books I’ve read lately. Sure, the bloodline has persisted throughout all these generations, but it has been mangled through incest, mental illness, and biological experimentation that resolved with an ending that only left me feeling empty, no catharsis in sight.
This book has a lot of uncomfortable, and, at times, unnecessary sexual imagery. Most egregious was one character getting into a car accident and describing his erection whilst he is lying in the wreckage. I am not a prude by any means, but I still recoiled at this line all the same, because why was that needed????? There was also plot lines of alien impregnation and incest, and it feels like it was only there for shock value rather than actual plot relevance. For those who are upset by these topics, give this book a pass.
This book deals with the recurring motif of a faceless man walking through the desert. Each character dreams of this, and it is never developed or elaborated on. It just feels like a plot device to show the characters are related, and it quickly becomes repetitive. Even when the reveal happened, it was so incredibly anticlimactic!
I worry that I may have missed the point of this novel. However, a lot of this book was just disturbing and/or boring and did not offer a lot in consolation. Most of the characters’ plot lines are never resolved. A lot of them decline over the course of the novel and some become downright despicable. The floating city, while very cool, is impractical and stupid. Eva was right all along.
I do like how the book commentates on humanity’s shortsightedness and flawed nature, but it never shows us the positives. We just see a slow, inevitable decline of both Earth and Mars, and nothing can stop it. It’s powerful and soul shattering. The ending was the best part of the novel, but by then, I just had lost all interest and it’s not even resolved in a way that inspires hope to me, even though that may have been the intent.
This is a weird and disturbing novel. It offers good insight and acceptable prose, but it is also overly long and a bit of a slog to get through. It is just also eerily similar to Sea of Tranquility, and the entire time I read this novel it just cemented my opinion of how Emily St. John Mandel was able to do so much more with less and that Sea of Tranquility is overall superior.
May 8, 2024
I initially thought this was mystical and lyrical and somewhat poetic as the bloodline of Samson flowed throughout time. However, towards the middle, it kind of hiccupped for me, and I couldn't recover the lyricism.
Very elegantly written with nods to climate change with an alternate timeline after Hurricane Katrina.
It starts in 1873 with Samson, an immigrant, who is hunting bison for money and to make a life for himself here. We are then in 1975 following Bea who is pregnant and with psychological issues of one who has been traumatized, which in her case, includes incest and being raised in seclusion among other things. We do find out her connection to Samson, as part of the thread weaving throughout the novel. Next is Paul, an engineer, who builds a floating city above New Orleans, which has flooded and never dried out. His connection to Bea is revealed before he goes to New Orleans with this daughter. Interspersed are chapters devoted to Moon, a 14-year-old girl with her two alien uncles on Mars who are all the result of radiation experimentation while in the womb. Moon has been tasked with repopulating humanity on this planet. The blue planet, Earth is now entirely under water. There is a type of biosphere on Mars designed to house a new population should she decide to go forward with this.
Very elegantly written with nods to climate change with an alternate timeline after Hurricane Katrina.
It starts in 1873 with Samson, an immigrant, who is hunting bison for money and to make a life for himself here. We are then in 1975 following Bea who is pregnant and with psychological issues of one who has been traumatized, which in her case, includes incest and being raised in seclusion among other things. We do find out her connection to Samson, as part of the thread weaving throughout the novel. Next is Paul, an engineer, who builds a floating city above New Orleans, which has flooded and never dried out. His connection to Bea is revealed before he goes to New Orleans with this daughter. Interspersed are chapters devoted to Moon, a 14-year-old girl with her two alien uncles on Mars who are all the result of radiation experimentation while in the womb. Moon has been tasked with repopulating humanity on this planet. The blue planet, Earth is now entirely under water. There is a type of biosphere on Mars designed to house a new population should she decide to go forward with this.
May 30, 2022
Read this if you like: Different POVs and timelines, Dystopian reads
I loved this book. First, I can't believe it's a debut. It's so well written, so different from other things I have read. This is a Dystopian novel about the end of the world. But it is so much more than that. We are following four different people in four different timelines.
In the year 1873 a bison hunter named Samson travels the Kansas plains, full of hope for his new country. In the year 1975, and an adolescent girl named Bea walks those very same plains. She is pregnant, mute, and raised in extreme seclusion. She lands in an institution, where a well-meaning psychiatrist struggles to decipher the pictures she draws of her past. In the year 2027 after a series of devastating storms, a tenacious engineer named Paul has left behind his banal suburban existence to build a floating city above the drowned streets that were once New Orleans. There with his poet daughter he rules over a society of dreamers and vagabonds who salvage vintage dresses, ferment rotgut wine out of fruit, paint murals on the ceiling of the Superdome, and try to write the story of their existence. Lastly, in the year 2073 Moon has heard only stories of the blue planet--Earth, as they once called it, now succumbed entirely to water. Now that Moon has come of age, she could become a mother if she wanted to. She's never had an example of a mother. Alone on Mars with her two alien uncles, she must decide whether to continue her family line and repopulate humanity on a new planet.
Wow. Just wow. This blew me away. I loved how the story was told. The character development was well done. The story is both sad and beautiful. This tackles harsh subjects like mental health, climate change, and more. I will say that I could have done without the Moon timeline/storyline all together. It didn't do much for me. Everything else was amazing and I flew through it. Highly recommend!
Thank you to Viking Books/Penguin Random House for the gifted copy! ❤️
I loved this book. First, I can't believe it's a debut. It's so well written, so different from other things I have read. This is a Dystopian novel about the end of the world. But it is so much more than that. We are following four different people in four different timelines.
In the year 1873 a bison hunter named Samson travels the Kansas plains, full of hope for his new country. In the year 1975, and an adolescent girl named Bea walks those very same plains. She is pregnant, mute, and raised in extreme seclusion. She lands in an institution, where a well-meaning psychiatrist struggles to decipher the pictures she draws of her past. In the year 2027 after a series of devastating storms, a tenacious engineer named Paul has left behind his banal suburban existence to build a floating city above the drowned streets that were once New Orleans. There with his poet daughter he rules over a society of dreamers and vagabonds who salvage vintage dresses, ferment rotgut wine out of fruit, paint murals on the ceiling of the Superdome, and try to write the story of their existence. Lastly, in the year 2073 Moon has heard only stories of the blue planet--Earth, as they once called it, now succumbed entirely to water. Now that Moon has come of age, she could become a mother if she wanted to. She's never had an example of a mother. Alone on Mars with her two alien uncles, she must decide whether to continue her family line and repopulate humanity on a new planet.
Wow. Just wow. This blew me away. I loved how the story was told. The character development was well done. The story is both sad and beautiful. This tackles harsh subjects like mental health, climate change, and more. I will say that I could have done without the Moon timeline/storyline all together. It didn't do much for me. Everything else was amazing and I flew through it. Highly recommend!
Thank you to Viking Books/Penguin Random House for the gifted copy! ❤️
January 24, 2023
This book made me uncomfortable, and not in a good way. Too terf-y for me
June 14, 2023
3.5/5 La structure ne m’a pas convaincue ni embarquée.
C’est dommage parce que le pitch et le début m’avaient enthousiasmée, mais j’ai trouvé le roman inégal. J’ai trouvé qu’il y avait des problèmes de rythme, des facilités et des petites choses problématiques.
Bref, un roman ambitieux, qui pourrait tout à fait être adapté en série, mais que j’ai trouvé superficiel et un peu ennuyeux.
Contente de l’avoir finie !
C’est dommage parce que le pitch et le début m’avaient enthousiasmée, mais j’ai trouvé le roman inégal. J’ai trouvé qu’il y avait des problèmes de rythme, des facilités et des petites choses problématiques.
Bref, un roman ambitieux, qui pourrait tout à fait être adapté en série, mais que j’ai trouvé superficiel et un peu ennuyeux.
Contente de l’avoir finie !
August 1, 2022
Walk the Vanished Earth is a beautiful, character-driven novel. The reader follows people from several generations as Earth undergoes radical climate change. Each character's narrative stands on its own as a short story and intertwines with the others to make a compelling whole. Even though Walk the Vanished Earth contains darkness--individual people's cruelty and cataclysmic weather events--I found it overall to be hopeful. Characters grow, love, survive, and build a better future. I particularly loved the story of Moon, a girl growing up on Mars.
A challenge with apocalyptic fiction is that it can feel too real, and I get distracted from the story by my fears for my own child's real future. Walk the Vanished Earth avoids this by remaining clearly fictional. The apocalypse is set in the past (2017), with large chunks of North America inexplicably suddenly flooding to create the conditions of the novel. Fictional elements like psychic dreams and travel to Mars weave through the plot. Swan taps into our culture's current fears for the future, but in a way that remained on the enjoyable side of reading.
A challenge with apocalyptic fiction is that it can feel too real, and I get distracted from the story by my fears for my own child's real future. Walk the Vanished Earth avoids this by remaining clearly fictional. The apocalypse is set in the past (2017), with large chunks of North America inexplicably suddenly flooding to create the conditions of the novel. Fictional elements like psychic dreams and travel to Mars weave through the plot. Swan taps into our culture's current fears for the future, but in a way that remained on the enjoyable side of reading.
December 7, 2024
The idea of following a bloodline through generations and disasters was really appealing but schizophrenia has to stop being demonised and incest has to stop being glamorised for the sake of fiction (even if the matters are not central).
Also a lot of the main character’s opinions are borderline TERF, intended or not (and I don’t know which is worst) it still is infuriating.
Overall, the vibe of this book is so weird in such unhealthy ways, it’s beyond my understanding how the core concept is so cool and the story so badly shaped.
Also a lot of the main character’s opinions are borderline TERF, intended or not (and I don’t know which is worst) it still is infuriating.
Overall, the vibe of this book is so weird in such unhealthy ways, it’s beyond my understanding how the core concept is so cool and the story so badly shaped.
May 29, 2022
What even was that? The best book I’ve read in years! Walk the Vanished Earth is a book about change, a book about telling unique stories, and a book about human ambition gone wrong. Though it has many sci-fi elements and certainly tells a tale of post-apocalyptic survival, it is primarily a work of literary fiction with a family saga at its core. WTVE is also a novel partly about climate change, and Swan’s altered timeline heightens the urgency of a very real issue. The author seems to be saying, “This is happening now! Pay attention!” This bold debut takes the reader on a journey to discover Mars but also to discover the self and that self’s place in a world that is very quickly falling to bits. The stylish prose and fresh approach to storytelling are mirrored in the stories told by the many characters that persist in walking the vanished earth. Five stars! Pick this book up and read it. It’s important.
June 4, 2022
I was really surprised to see how high the reviews were for this. It's not terrible by any means, but I found it incredibly frustrating. It's an intriguing premise but the execution just didn't work for me at all. Jumping around from one time period to the next, swinging back to Moon and then jumping back again. I'm all for books about stories, and the importance of stories, but that was a big problem here. Every person felt like characters in a story, not real people I should care about.
I think my final verdict is that if it's on your tbr list, keep it there, but don't feel bad about moving it down a few notches.
I think my final verdict is that if it's on your tbr list, keep it there, but don't feel bad about moving it down a few notches.
February 29, 2024
This book checked so many boxes for me. Multiple stories intertwined, a bloodline over several generations, speculative climate fiction that explores morality without answering the big questions. So so good.
July 17, 2022
This book, y’all. It wowed me in ways I wasn’t prepared for 🔥
More than anything, the sharp, choppy prose lended a sense of precision to the story: not a single word wasted, but rather heavy with meaning, a gentle caress provoking constant deep thought.
Often I find POV shifts unnecessary, but in Walk the Vanished Earth that is not the case! The POVs — spanning many generations — each seem meticulously crafted to weave a story of huge proportions tighter together into something raw yet digestible, and it is fantastic, point blank period.
If you know me, you know I like my stories with a little bit of gap-widening Weird™️ and Erin Swan did not let me down. It left me sitting on my couch, staring into space, unsettled, and THAT is what I want out of every book I read 🌟
More than anything, the sharp, choppy prose lended a sense of precision to the story: not a single word wasted, but rather heavy with meaning, a gentle caress provoking constant deep thought.
Often I find POV shifts unnecessary, but in Walk the Vanished Earth that is not the case! The POVs — spanning many generations — each seem meticulously crafted to weave a story of huge proportions tighter together into something raw yet digestible, and it is fantastic, point blank period.
If you know me, you know I like my stories with a little bit of gap-widening Weird™️ and Erin Swan did not let me down. It left me sitting on my couch, staring into space, unsettled, and THAT is what I want out of every book I read 🌟
January 9, 2023
A Mother is a Basin, Filled with Water and Poured Out
In her first novel, Erin Swan wraps a multigenerational tale in a Science Fictional world. The book was published in 2022, but the dystopian theme is backdated to the events of Hurricane Katrina and even further back to the near extinction of the buffalo on the American plains. It forward dates to 2073 on a flooded Earth and on Mars. The story is told through the perspectives of eight different main characters, and out of time order, so that the reader gets the final conclusions to the first and last characters' stories in the final three chapters. It sounds complex, but in practice it makes a spellbinding tale.
The theme is climate change and rising ocean levels, along with catastrophic weather events. All of the characters I mentioned are tied together in the story across generations. After I finished reading, I realized I would like to read it again, but chronologically just to see how different the pieces fit together. It was that intriguing... so much so that I could literally enjoy re-reading it immediately.
There is much to enjoy about this book. I enjoyed it in hardback from Barnes & Noble, reading along with excellent narration from Audible. This is a highly imaginative and thought-provoking piece of Science Fiction, and sits firmly in the third millennium, despite the forays into the past.
In her first novel, Erin Swan wraps a multigenerational tale in a Science Fictional world. The book was published in 2022, but the dystopian theme is backdated to the events of Hurricane Katrina and even further back to the near extinction of the buffalo on the American plains. It forward dates to 2073 on a flooded Earth and on Mars. The story is told through the perspectives of eight different main characters, and out of time order, so that the reader gets the final conclusions to the first and last characters' stories in the final three chapters. It sounds complex, but in practice it makes a spellbinding tale.
The theme is climate change and rising ocean levels, along with catastrophic weather events. All of the characters I mentioned are tied together in the story across generations. After I finished reading, I realized I would like to read it again, but chronologically just to see how different the pieces fit together. It was that intriguing... so much so that I could literally enjoy re-reading it immediately.
There is much to enjoy about this book. I enjoyed it in hardback from Barnes & Noble, reading along with excellent narration from Audible. This is a highly imaginative and thought-provoking piece of Science Fiction, and sits firmly in the third millennium, despite the forays into the past.
July 20, 2022
This book knocked my socks off. If I were still in graduate school, I would write an essay exploring the relationship between it and One Hundred Years of Solitude, with a focus on the intersection (or utter overlap) between magical realism and sci-fi. A fantastic debut!
August 9, 2023
J'hésitais entre 3 et 4 étoiles pour ce roman de SF.
Il s'agit d'une fresque familiale qui nous fait suivre plusieurs personnages depuis le début du XXeme siècle jusqu'au XXIIe siècle sur Mars. Des personnages fragiles qui méconnaissent leur ascendance, il y a tout un mystère sur le personnage du "père" le fondateur de la lignée et qui subissent beaucoup de violence. Il y a une forme de magie qui se perpétue dans la famille, un don de vision qui guide leur pas et les pousse à avoir des destins extraordinaires. Chacun d'entre eux va pousser un pion supplémentaire dans l'histoire de l'humanité face à la catastrophe climatique. Les eaux montent et inondent les plus grandes villes du monde, la société en est changée à tout jamais et les membres de cette famille ont une sorte de mission à accomplir.
Chaque personnage de cette famille à une histoire atypique, certaine que j'ai mieux aimé suivre que d'autres. J'aime particulièrement l'aspect fresque familial donc j'ai été servie avec ce roman et j'ai trouvé que c'était le point fort du livre. La continuité généalogique permet la continuité narrative. Par contre en dehors de ça j'ai trouvé que le roman manquait d'un fil rouge. Je l'ai terminé et je ne pourrais pas dire où voulait en venir l'autrice. Je n'aime pas finir un roman en me demandant s'il n'y avait pas quelque chose d'autre à comprendre dans cette histoire et c'est le sentiment que j'ai eu là.
Il y a eu une grosse longueur dans le dernier quart qui a failli me faire décrocher.
A part ça, on aborde énormément de sujets : la famille, la descendance, la parentalité, l'art, le climat, la maternité, le corps...
J'ai particulièrement aimé la dimension fantastique, le mystère autour de ce don dans la famille. Et j'ai bcp aimé aussi l'aspect post apo, comment les gens vivent et s'organisent dans un monde noyé.
Il s'agit d'une fresque familiale qui nous fait suivre plusieurs personnages depuis le début du XXeme siècle jusqu'au XXIIe siècle sur Mars. Des personnages fragiles qui méconnaissent leur ascendance, il y a tout un mystère sur le personnage du "père" le fondateur de la lignée et qui subissent beaucoup de violence. Il y a une forme de magie qui se perpétue dans la famille, un don de vision qui guide leur pas et les pousse à avoir des destins extraordinaires. Chacun d'entre eux va pousser un pion supplémentaire dans l'histoire de l'humanité face à la catastrophe climatique. Les eaux montent et inondent les plus grandes villes du monde, la société en est changée à tout jamais et les membres de cette famille ont une sorte de mission à accomplir.
Chaque personnage de cette famille à une histoire atypique, certaine que j'ai mieux aimé suivre que d'autres. J'aime particulièrement l'aspect fresque familial donc j'ai été servie avec ce roman et j'ai trouvé que c'était le point fort du livre. La continuité généalogique permet la continuité narrative. Par contre en dehors de ça j'ai trouvé que le roman manquait d'un fil rouge. Je l'ai terminé et je ne pourrais pas dire où voulait en venir l'autrice. Je n'aime pas finir un roman en me demandant s'il n'y avait pas quelque chose d'autre à comprendre dans cette histoire et c'est le sentiment que j'ai eu là.
Il y a eu une grosse longueur dans le dernier quart qui a failli me faire décrocher.
A part ça, on aborde énormément de sujets : la famille, la descendance, la parentalité, l'art, le climat, la maternité, le corps...
J'ai particulièrement aimé la dimension fantastique, le mystère autour de ce don dans la famille. Et j'ai bcp aimé aussi l'aspect post apo, comment les gens vivent et s'organisent dans un monde noyé.
May 19, 2023
« Parcourir la terre disparue » de Erin Swan est un remarquable premier roman, commencé en 2014. Il est sorti aux États-Unis en mai 2022 sous le titre « Walk the vanished earth ». Il est aujourd’hui publié en France aux éditions Gallmeister. Il aura donc fallu six ans à Erin Swan pour écrire, puis peaufiner ce récit en parallèle de son travail de professeur. Six ans pour construire un roman d’une densité exceptionnelle, porté par des personnages tous issus de la même lignée. « Parcourir la terre disparue » s’étend sur deux siècles et met en scène sept générations, des États-Unis à la planète Mars. L’écrivaine a fait le choix de planter le décor uniquement aux États-Unis, car le rêve américain n’est plus tout à fait ce qu’il était. Roman dystopique, « Parcourir la terre disparue » navigue dans les temporalités et les lieux, principalement des plaines du Kansas à La Nouvelle-Orléans pour nous amener au projet « Étoile Rouge », la colonisation de la planète Mars.
Résumer ce roman est un exercice un peu compliqué, mais je peux vous donner quelques clés, au moins sur les temporalités et les personnages phares rencontrés.
En 1873, Samson, chasseur de bisons, parcourt les plaines du Kansas.
En 1975, Bea parcourt les mêmes plaines que son ancêtre.
En 2027, Paul construit une ville flottante après de nombreuses tempêtes ravageuses sur les côtes américaines. Il est accompagné de sa fille Kay.
En 2073, Moon vit sur Mars avec deux oncles, elle n’a jamais connu la vie sur Terre. Elle vient d’avoir 14 ans et comprend qu’une grande mission l’attend.
Dans « Parcourir la terre disparue », la Terre telle que nous la connaissons est sous l’eau. Dans l’esprit de Erin Swan, tout a commencé par l’ouragan Katrina qui l’a fortement marquée. Elle a perçu cette catastrophe comme un avertissement. La terre avait décidé de se débarrasser de ses habitants. Dans son roman, elle utilise des faits réels comme cet ouragan ou encore les feux qui ont détruit la ville de Paradise en Californie pour axer son intrigue sur le changement climatique, et le futur qui attend la nouvelle génération.
La fin du monde c’est-à-dire la fin de la planète Terre telle que nous la connaissons est proche. Dans « Parcourir la terre disparue », l’auteure centre son récit aux États-Unis, en plongeant par exemple certains territoires sous l’eau. « La Floride n’est plus. Un tsunami l’a submergée il y a deux ans. De Miami à Jacksonville. Pensa-cola. L’État tout entier. », « Tout a été emporté. (…) La Nouvelle-Orléans a été noyée. Ce n’est pas comme Katrina. C’est définitif. », « La côte est aussi, malheureusement. L’ouest a tout de suite été ravagé. ». Elle explique que les États-Unis ont une grosse part de responsabilités dans la colonisation des territoires pour en tirer toujours plus de profit, et dénonce l’exagération de l’utilisation des ressources à outrance sans se soucier le moins du monde d’écologie. (ceux qui ont vécu aux États-Unis savent de quoi je parle : sprinklers – système d’arrose automatique des pelouses- allumés alors qu’il pleut des cordes, climatisation qui fonctionne quand les portes sont ouvertes vers l’extérieur, conduite de véhicules énormes et très polluants, maisons illuminées la nuit, etc.) La nouvelle génération est bien plus soucieuse de l’environnement, et Erin Swan l’a bien compris puisqu’elle met en scène des personnages qui héritent d’un lourd passif et doivent composer avec celui-ci pour construire leur futur.
Cette construction du futur se fait par étapes, et c’est en naviguant à travers les époques que le lecteur peut prendre toute la mesure des actions menées. Par exemple, la création d’une ville flottante pour lutter contre les inondations perpétuelles est la résultante d’une façon différente de penser l’avenir. Elle est également le fruit d’une réflexion précise et pertinente d’une situation à un instant T, quand certains ne croient plus en ce que racontent les médias. « Un ouragan. Deux. Trois. Quatre. Des orages plus intenses que jamais. Plus violents. Pendant que Paul dormait, la forme des continents a changé. New York a subi la transformation la plus remarquable. Chennai au sud de l’Inde. Les Maldives. La Nouvelle-Orléans. Personne ne parle de perte. L’événement est trop soudain, trop inconcevable. Les présentateurs n’évoquent pas l’Apocalypse. Ils refusent de prononcer ce mot, préférant parler de survie. On s’en remettra, affirment-ils. Les gouvernements envoient des provisions. De la nourriture. Des bandages. Des bateaux. Les marées reflueront. Les villes seront sauvées. La civilisation perdurera. »
Lorsque l’épopée de « Parcourir la terre disparue » arrive à son terme, que les conclusions terribles apparaissent, il devient évident pour certains qu’il faut coloniser d’autres planètes et y créer la vie. Le lecteur voyage non seulement dans le temps, mais aussi dans l’espace. Je vous laisse découvrir la vie sur Mars, le projet un peu fou de certains. J’ai aimé la façon dont l’auteur traite le sujet de la vie sur Mars, à la fois comme un espoir que cela fonctionne pour permettre à l’humanité de continuer, mais aussi une forme d’espérance que la colonisation échoue. L’Humanité mérite-t-elle une seconde chance ? À n’importe quel prix ? En faisant fi de toute morale ? En plaçant tous ses espoirs sur les épaules d’une seule personne ?
« Parcourir la terre disparue » est un roman intimiste et introspectif où les femmes ont une place prépondérante. Elles sont les utérus du monde de demain. Pouvoir ou malédiction ? Dans ce voyage épique, les liens entre les personnages se cherchent, ils ne sont pas donnés sur un plateau. Le roman nécessite un minimum d’implication pour comprendre la mécanique et la façon dont il est construit. Rassurez-vous, ce n’est pas mission impossible ! Erin Swan a apporté une attention particulière à la construction pour que tout fasse sens. « Parcourir la terre disparue », traite de l’évolution de la civilisation, et du futur de l’humanité. Chaque personnage apporte une pierre importante à l’édifice de l’histoire, et le lecteur s’attache à chacun. Découvrir peu à peu les liens entre ascendance et descendance est tout à fait réjouissant. Dans cette saga familiale, l’héritage donné a une importance particulière pour les générations futures. Il en est de même pour les traumatismes. Évidemment, « Parcourir la terre disparue » traite majoritairement d’environnement, de catastrophes environnementales, de réchauffement climatique et de ses conséquences, de montées des eaux. Et c’est à cause des problèmes écologiques rencontrés par l’humanité, que l’auteur a pu imaginer la création de la vie ailleurs. La boucle est bouclée.
J’ai trouvé ce récit absolument passionnant. D’abord, dans sa construction un peu mystérieuse au début, puis dans la force de ses personnages, enfin dans les thématiques qui y sont abordées. C’est typiquement un roman ancré dans notre époque, même s’il est dystopique. L’auteure a puisé dans les peurs de toute une génération sur des questions d’avenir. La partie sur Mars est tout à fait fascinante, lorsque l’on comprend ce qui se joue sur cette planète, notamment à travers le personnage de Moon. « Parcourir la terre disparue » n’est pas un roman catastrophiste, il est chargé de beaucoup d’espoirs malgré l’inhumanité de l’humanité et le peu de respect que l’homme accorde à la terre qui le porte. J’aime particulièrement les pensées de Samson qui vit dans les grandes plaines du Kansas de 1873 à 1925 au regard de notre situation actuelle : « Il est traversé par la même pensée qu’alors : combien ce pays est bon et bienveillant. Cette nouvelle nation, si généreuse avec ses richesses. Elle vous donnerait les étoiles si vous les lui réclamiez. Elle vous donnerait la lune. ». Ce roman est un petit bijou d’intelligence, de pertinence et d’émotions. Coup de cœur ! Lisez-le, vous verrez…
Résumer ce roman est un exercice un peu compliqué, mais je peux vous donner quelques clés, au moins sur les temporalités et les personnages phares rencontrés.
En 1873, Samson, chasseur de bisons, parcourt les plaines du Kansas.
En 1975, Bea parcourt les mêmes plaines que son ancêtre.
En 2027, Paul construit une ville flottante après de nombreuses tempêtes ravageuses sur les côtes américaines. Il est accompagné de sa fille Kay.
En 2073, Moon vit sur Mars avec deux oncles, elle n’a jamais connu la vie sur Terre. Elle vient d’avoir 14 ans et comprend qu’une grande mission l’attend.
Dans « Parcourir la terre disparue », la Terre telle que nous la connaissons est sous l’eau. Dans l’esprit de Erin Swan, tout a commencé par l’ouragan Katrina qui l’a fortement marquée. Elle a perçu cette catastrophe comme un avertissement. La terre avait décidé de se débarrasser de ses habitants. Dans son roman, elle utilise des faits réels comme cet ouragan ou encore les feux qui ont détruit la ville de Paradise en Californie pour axer son intrigue sur le changement climatique, et le futur qui attend la nouvelle génération.
La fin du monde c’est-à-dire la fin de la planète Terre telle que nous la connaissons est proche. Dans « Parcourir la terre disparue », l’auteure centre son récit aux États-Unis, en plongeant par exemple certains territoires sous l’eau. « La Floride n’est plus. Un tsunami l’a submergée il y a deux ans. De Miami à Jacksonville. Pensa-cola. L’État tout entier. », « Tout a été emporté. (…) La Nouvelle-Orléans a été noyée. Ce n’est pas comme Katrina. C’est définitif. », « La côte est aussi, malheureusement. L’ouest a tout de suite été ravagé. ». Elle explique que les États-Unis ont une grosse part de responsabilités dans la colonisation des territoires pour en tirer toujours plus de profit, et dénonce l’exagération de l’utilisation des ressources à outrance sans se soucier le moins du monde d’écologie. (ceux qui ont vécu aux États-Unis savent de quoi je parle : sprinklers – système d’arrose automatique des pelouses- allumés alors qu’il pleut des cordes, climatisation qui fonctionne quand les portes sont ouvertes vers l’extérieur, conduite de véhicules énormes et très polluants, maisons illuminées la nuit, etc.) La nouvelle génération est bien plus soucieuse de l’environnement, et Erin Swan l’a bien compris puisqu’elle met en scène des personnages qui héritent d’un lourd passif et doivent composer avec celui-ci pour construire leur futur.
Cette construction du futur se fait par étapes, et c’est en naviguant à travers les époques que le lecteur peut prendre toute la mesure des actions menées. Par exemple, la création d’une ville flottante pour lutter contre les inondations perpétuelles est la résultante d’une façon différente de penser l’avenir. Elle est également le fruit d’une réflexion précise et pertinente d’une situation à un instant T, quand certains ne croient plus en ce que racontent les médias. « Un ouragan. Deux. Trois. Quatre. Des orages plus intenses que jamais. Plus violents. Pendant que Paul dormait, la forme des continents a changé. New York a subi la transformation la plus remarquable. Chennai au sud de l’Inde. Les Maldives. La Nouvelle-Orléans. Personne ne parle de perte. L’événement est trop soudain, trop inconcevable. Les présentateurs n’évoquent pas l’Apocalypse. Ils refusent de prononcer ce mot, préférant parler de survie. On s’en remettra, affirment-ils. Les gouvernements envoient des provisions. De la nourriture. Des bandages. Des bateaux. Les marées reflueront. Les villes seront sauvées. La civilisation perdurera. »
Lorsque l’épopée de « Parcourir la terre disparue » arrive à son terme, que les conclusions terribles apparaissent, il devient évident pour certains qu’il faut coloniser d’autres planètes et y créer la vie. Le lecteur voyage non seulement dans le temps, mais aussi dans l’espace. Je vous laisse découvrir la vie sur Mars, le projet un peu fou de certains. J’ai aimé la façon dont l’auteur traite le sujet de la vie sur Mars, à la fois comme un espoir que cela fonctionne pour permettre à l’humanité de continuer, mais aussi une forme d’espérance que la colonisation échoue. L’Humanité mérite-t-elle une seconde chance ? À n’importe quel prix ? En faisant fi de toute morale ? En plaçant tous ses espoirs sur les épaules d’une seule personne ?
« Parcourir la terre disparue » est un roman intimiste et introspectif où les femmes ont une place prépondérante. Elles sont les utérus du monde de demain. Pouvoir ou malédiction ? Dans ce voyage épique, les liens entre les personnages se cherchent, ils ne sont pas donnés sur un plateau. Le roman nécessite un minimum d’implication pour comprendre la mécanique et la façon dont il est construit. Rassurez-vous, ce n’est pas mission impossible ! Erin Swan a apporté une attention particulière à la construction pour que tout fasse sens. « Parcourir la terre disparue », traite de l’évolution de la civilisation, et du futur de l’humanité. Chaque personnage apporte une pierre importante à l’édifice de l’histoire, et le lecteur s’attache à chacun. Découvrir peu à peu les liens entre ascendance et descendance est tout à fait réjouissant. Dans cette saga familiale, l’héritage donné a une importance particulière pour les générations futures. Il en est de même pour les traumatismes. Évidemment, « Parcourir la terre disparue » traite majoritairement d’environnement, de catastrophes environnementales, de réchauffement climatique et de ses conséquences, de montées des eaux. Et c’est à cause des problèmes écologiques rencontrés par l’humanité, que l’auteur a pu imaginer la création de la vie ailleurs. La boucle est bouclée.
J’ai trouvé ce récit absolument passionnant. D’abord, dans sa construction un peu mystérieuse au début, puis dans la force de ses personnages, enfin dans les thématiques qui y sont abordées. C’est typiquement un roman ancré dans notre époque, même s’il est dystopique. L’auteure a puisé dans les peurs de toute une génération sur des questions d’avenir. La partie sur Mars est tout à fait fascinante, lorsque l’on comprend ce qui se joue sur cette planète, notamment à travers le personnage de Moon. « Parcourir la terre disparue » n’est pas un roman catastrophiste, il est chargé de beaucoup d’espoirs malgré l’inhumanité de l’humanité et le peu de respect que l’homme accorde à la terre qui le porte. J’aime particulièrement les pensées de Samson qui vit dans les grandes plaines du Kansas de 1873 à 1925 au regard de notre situation actuelle : « Il est traversé par la même pensée qu’alors : combien ce pays est bon et bienveillant. Cette nouvelle nation, si généreuse avec ses richesses. Elle vous donnerait les étoiles si vous les lui réclamiez. Elle vous donnerait la lune. ». Ce roman est un petit bijou d’intelligence, de pertinence et d’émotions. Coup de cœur ! Lisez-le, vous verrez…
August 15, 2022
some wild stuff going on here. creative and speculative, took me to places at turns both so recognizable and so unfamiliar. in some senses the varying generations felt too loosely tied together, which maybe is to say i just wanted a longer book, and so much of the plotting of the future was left for me to fill in the margins when i longed for a bit more description and world-building. but altogether very high concept and enjoyable despite being a little blurry around the edges. it fits the theme of my favorite books so far from this year - sea of tranquility, how high we go in the dark, etc etc. i'm conditioning myself for the climate collapse through beautiful literature!
December 13, 2022
This started out SO STRONG, but as it went along, the lack of coherent universe-building, and the really stranger gender essentialism turned me off. Surely there is a way to focus on women getting through horrifying circumstances and fighting for survival without focusing SO MUCH on their ability to carry life?
Which is sad because I really enjoyed the other messages the author appeared to want to convey in this book.
Which is sad because I really enjoyed the other messages the author appeared to want to convey in this book.
July 8, 2022
I normally do not write reviews but I feel I need to on this one. This is an odd book but also intriguing. I needed to know what happened. This book might be strange but it definitely kept me reading.
June 16, 2022
I’ve no idea what I just listened to, but it was amazing.
September 6, 2022
This book is extraordinary.
It begins in 1873 with a barely-out-of-his-boyhood man on the Kansas prairie. It also begins on Mars in 2073. It begins yet again with a pregnant 12-year-old in 1975, alone and convinced she will bear a giant. (She’s not wrong.)
This novel is a dozen things I love: literary & smart (but never dry or overwrought), with characters I instantly cared about and a story so strange I had to keep reading to see how it all came together. Climate change figures into the story, but so do poetry, prophecy, obsession, dreams, wonder. Unsentimental portrayals of motherhood. Free-range imagination. Expertly crafted prose, not a word wasted. Most of all—it transported me so completely that I forgot I was reading.
I’m so glad I bought this in hardcover, because 1) I know I’m going to re-read it, 2) and lend it out to my most thoughtful & heartful reader friends, and 3) the frightening beauty of this cover is a work of art in its own right. Get thee to a bookstore & bring home this marvel.
It begins in 1873 with a barely-out-of-his-boyhood man on the Kansas prairie. It also begins on Mars in 2073. It begins yet again with a pregnant 12-year-old in 1975, alone and convinced she will bear a giant. (She’s not wrong.)
This novel is a dozen things I love: literary & smart (but never dry or overwrought), with characters I instantly cared about and a story so strange I had to keep reading to see how it all came together. Climate change figures into the story, but so do poetry, prophecy, obsession, dreams, wonder. Unsentimental portrayals of motherhood. Free-range imagination. Expertly crafted prose, not a word wasted. Most of all—it transported me so completely that I forgot I was reading.
I’m so glad I bought this in hardcover, because 1) I know I’m going to re-read it, 2) and lend it out to my most thoughtful & heartful reader friends, and 3) the frightening beauty of this cover is a work of art in its own right. Get thee to a bookstore & bring home this marvel.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 370 reviews