Diane Cook

'THE ENVIRONMENTAL NOVEL OF OUR TIMES.' Lemn Sissay, Booker Prize judge From an acclaimed Guardian First Book Award finalist comes a debut novel 'brutal and beautiful in equal measure' (Emily St. John Mandel) A Guardian Best Science Fiction Book of the Year A 'Best Book of the Year 2020' according to BBC Culture An Irish Times Best Debut Fiction of 2020 NPR Best Books of the Year Bea's five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away. The smog and pollution of the overdeveloped, overpopulated metropolis they call home is ravaging her lungs. Bea knows she cannot stay in the City, but there is only one alternative: The Wilderness State. Mankind has never been allowed to venture into this vast expanse of untamed land. Until now. Bea and Agnes join eighteen other volunteers who agree to take part in a radical experiment. They must slowly learn how to live in the unpredictable, often dangerous Wilderness, leaving no trace on their surroundings in their quest to survive. But as Agnes embraces this new existence, Bea realises that saving her daughter's life might mean losing her in ways she hadn't foreseen. At once a blazing lament of our contempt for nature and a deeply humane portrayal of motherhood, The New Wilderness is an extraordinary, urgent novel from a celebrated new literary voice.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020

The New Wilderness

Bea's five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is wasting away, ravaged by the smog and pollution of the overdeveloped, overpopulated metropolis they call home. Bea knows she cannot stay in the city, but there is only one alternative- The Wilderness State. This vast expanse of unwelcoming, untamed land is untouched by mankind. Until now. Somewhere between a science experiment and a refugee, Bea and Agnes slowly learn how to live in this unpredictable, often dangerous land. But as Agnes embraces this radically free new existence, Bea realises that her bond with her daughter will be tested in ways she could never have foreseen. At once a blazing lament of our contempt for nature and a deeply humane portrayal of motherhood, The New Wilderness is an extraordinary, urgent novel.

Jade Flynn

The most un-booker booker book I've read. 

Read for the Olympic Games Readathon. Team Hades: Prompt - Hades does not often interact with other Olympians. Read a stand alone.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020 "THE ENVIRONMENTAL NOVEL OF OUR TIMES" --Lemn Sissay, Booker Prize Judge "The New Wilderness is a virtuosic debut, brutal and beautiful in equal measure." —Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author of Station Eleven Margaret Atwood meets Miranda July in this wildly imaginative debut novel of a mother's battle to save her daughter in a world ravaged by climate change; A prescient and suspenseful book from the author of the acclaimed story collection, MAN V. NATURE. Bea’s five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away, consumed by the smog and pollution of the overdeveloped metropolis that most of the population now calls home. If they stay in the city, Agnes will die. There is only one alternative: the Wilderness State, the last swath of untouched, protected land, where people have always been forbidden. Until now. Bea, Agnes, and eighteen others volunteer to live in the Wilderness State, guinea pigs in an experiment to see if humans can exist in nature without destroying it. Living as nomadic hunter-gatherers, they slowly and painfully learn to survive in an unpredictable, dangerous land, bickering and battling for power and control as they betray and save one another. But as Agnes embraces the wild freedom of this new existence, Bea realizes that saving her daughter’s life means losing her in a different way. The farther they get from civilization, the more their bond is tested in astonishing and heartbreaking ways. At once a blazing lament of our contempt for nature and a deeply humane portrayal of motherhood and what it means to be human, The New Wilderness is an extraordinary novel from a one-of-a-kind literary force.

I finished it. I disagree with the Booker panel for this one, it is truly puzzling to see it on the short list.

This isn't a story about the dystopian society, and frankly I think it shouldn't really qualify as a dystopian, because it barely touched on the subject at all (maybe a handful of times did we even get a glimpse into the dystopian society).

Mainly, this is a story of a group selected for some kind-of study, which is never explained, and their weird journey "back to nature," where sometimes Cook implies it's been so long and so rough that they've reverted to a prey animal behavior, despite us being predators and we don't act like prey animals, even when looking down our evolutionary line. But really, that only sneaks in when Cook runs out of ideas or routes for the story. 

My main issue is with her philosophy and beliefs for how quickly we would "devolve." I think Cook needs to go back and do some research in sociology. You don't just rid yourself of social mores because you aren't in society anymore, those are further ingrained than she is trying to claim. I also don't think that her idea of making time fluid worked to fool me into believing more time passed and therefore her little human colony can break away from social conventions.

I also hated the point of view of Agnes. It's really just the story of a teenager coming of age in the wilderness, with some weird wild aspects thrown in. Cook does little to explain how big the wilderness area is, exactly why the City is so horrendous (to the extent that even her characters argue about issues of lack of information) and I could just keep ranting.

Helen Phillips meets Miranda July in this daring and imaginative debut novel that explores a moving mother-daughter relationship in a world ravaged by climate change and overpopulation, a suspenseful second book from the author of the acclaimed story collection, Man V. Nature. Bea's five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away. The smog and pollution of the City--an over-populated, over-built metropolis where most of the population lives--is destroying her lungs. But what can Bea do? No one leaves the City anymore, because there is nowhere else to go. But across the country lies the Wilderness State, the last swath of open, protected land left. Here forests and desert plains are inhabited solely by wildlife. People are forbidden. Until now. Bea, Agnes, and eighteen others volunteer to live in the Wilderness State as part of a study to see if humans can co-exist with nature. Can they be part of the wilderness and not destroy it? Living as nomadic hunter-gatherers, this new community wanders through the grand country, trying to adhere to the strict rules laid down by the Rangers, whose job it is to remind them they must Leave No Trace. As the group slowly learns to live and survive on the unpredictable and often dangerous land, its members battle for power and control and betray and save each other. The farther they roam, the closer they come to their animal soul. To her dismay, Bea discovers that, in fleeing to the Wilderness State to save Agnes, she is losing her in a different way. Agnes is growing wilder and closer to the land, while Bea cannot shake her urban past. As she and Agnes grow further apart, the bonds between mother and daughter are tested in surprising and heartbreaking ways. Yet just as these modern nomads come to think of the Wilderness State as home, its future is threatened when the Government discovers a new use for the land. Now the migrants must choose to stay and fight for their place in the wilderness, their home, or trust the Rangers and their promises of a better tomorrow elsewhere.

Jacklyn O’Brien 

I find myself still thinking about this book even two months after reading it. How children growing up in the wilderness would prefer it, and how much the parents sacrifice to live there.

Ben Nathan

Incredibly interesting concept that was well written with a great amount of insight and many interesting characters. This would be a five-star if it weren't for the fact that I thought the ending landed super flat and the world they came from was just this ethereal thing. FYI, I wasn't looking for a happy ending, just one that felt thought out, which this did not.

Sophie Shrimpton

I didn't understand it until I had the chance to care for this little Fern and I looked at her and saw all that came before and all that would come after and all its potential awfulness and certain beauty and it was too much for me to bear. I looked away, scared, disgusted, overcome with love, on the verge of crying and laughing, and finally, finally, finally I began to know my mother. 

A lot of the meaning and beauty of this book is familiar to me. It can be lovely to linger within what you know, unfurl under the warmth. But Cook stripped away hope, and left me vulnerable in the cold. It is the same setting - society teetering on the verge of destruction - without the relief - a reluctant revolutionary who saves us all. Instead, our heroine Agnes leaves us to languish. To feel nostalgic for the wilderness, but never recover it. 

In many ways it is a familiar warning. We run away from the discomfort of the wild and hunting and gathering, to settling, to private property, to urbanisation and industrialisation, to environmental destruction, back to the wilderness where we can breathe. Repeat. Facilitated by individualism, self-preservation and power. (view spoiler)[ Except the cycle ceases when there is no more wilderness - when there is the "Great Wilderness Roundup" and it is turned into the Private Lands, a continuation of the cycle which ends the cycle forever.  (hide spoiler)] 

Bea and Agnes come from different sides of that cycle, at different stages of transition. Bea moves from the City (industrialisation and destruction) to the Wilderness (clean air and survival) (view spoiler)[ but hopes for the Private Lands.  (hide spoiler)] Agnes is of the wilderness, (view spoiler)[ refuses to be enticed to the false promises of the Private Lands like her mother, but forced back to the City by the withering away of the wilderness.  (hide spoiler)] A turbulent mother-daughter relationship reflects the miscommunications between different generations - are used to show division between changes felt over lifetimes. The sands of time, the forces of "human nature" (whatever that is). The development of history felt in one crucible. 

One such miscommunication is an understanding of how the world works. Agnes sees all things as interconnected, as is obvious in the wilderness when you are immersed in the interactions between all that you know. But for Bea, "... where [she's] from, not everything is related". In the City, those interactions are spread out so that one person cannot see it all. Forces of production and change are out of the control of people because they have grown bigger than people's lives - they span centuries and countries. People are alienated from nature and their own origins. (view spoiler)[ This catches up to Agnes, when she is removed from her place in the Wilderness by things she was barely conscious of. Capitalism catches up with her.  (hide spoiler)] 

(view spoiler)[ Edit: it just occurred to me that perhaps the original intention of the experiment (and of the rangers not allowing the domestication of animals or settling into houses) was to stop the cycle at the hunter-gatherer stage to see whether humans could live on earth without automatically developing towards industrial society. Cook seems to think they cannot/will not - at every chance the Community tries to settle. The experiment was set up by Glen, so perhaps this was his intention too? Not merely to see how humans interacted with nature?  (hide spoiler)]

Quotes:
... I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map? (Aldo Leopold)

And yet, each night, that animal bedded down beneath whispering trees, on dead leaves, or in grasses under the moon and stars, listening to the chatter of the owls, the cautious step of the night animals, a whole new world relatively unknown to it except in these still moments, no comfort but the comfort of the group and of having lived through one more day. No guarantees for tomorrow. 

Agnes had noticed that a mother would only be a mother for so long before she wanted to be something else. No mother she'd ever watched here remained a mother forever. 

(view spoiler)[ Agnes finally formed a clear idea of what they'd said to each other and why. Her mother had said what she needed to say so that he would help her, help her daughter, help her family. And Ranger Bob had said anything he felt like saying because he could. Her hackles rose.  (hide spoiler)]

All natural things are known and understood somewhere inside a natural being.

Lee Schneider

Brilliant in places and also rather dark. Memorable characters. Strong mother-daughter connection in the narrative. 

Anna Walder

Fanstastic exploration of mother and daughters relationship, the unknowable parts of our loved ones and how we treat each other when faced with extraordinary hardship, but I wanted more depth to the other characters. 

Andrew Reeves

Lisa

Jonathan Grunert

Lisa Dembeck

Fraser Simons

Courtney Woolery

Kathy Rodger 

Liz Prinz

A passionate, tender and terrifying story of a mother's fight to protect her daughter

The New Wilderness SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020

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