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The New Wilderness
by Diane Cook · 2020
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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.
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"It’s a very humane portrait of motherhood and what it means to be human. It’s a future shock novel, an urgent novel reflecting where we are now and what’s happening in society now. It’s wonderfully imagined and written, particularly in how it deals with intimate relationships, but also how it handles broader themes: the characters are driven by each other, and by the environment. They get wilder and wilder, but there’s this loving relationship between mother and daughter – loving and punishing. We loved the writing, and it wasn’t hard to see ourselves in that context, and to relate to it. The way the writing and the imagination come together make it work. Yes, in fact we had many novels that dealt with climate change , whether set in the past or a dystopian future, but also many books with themes such as mother-child relationships, and intimate relationships broader in scope than the family setting. I’m not sure why, but this seemed very relevant in lockdown, with each of us in our bubble, yet being very aware of the problems and politics of the wider world, including the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the international demonstrations against global inequities that were heightened by lockdown. Whether you’re in Wyoming as Lee [Child, one of the 2020 Booker Prize judges] is, or in London where I am, we’re all being impacted by the world outside. So all of these things have fed into why certain themes or voices have perhaps resonated more, combined with high quality of writing."
The Best Fiction of 2020: The Booker Prize Shortlist ·
fivebooks.com
"It’s entirely understandable that in trying times you might want to avoid reading stories about people trying to survive dystopia, but Diane Cook’s The New Wilderness is my best argument for giving it a shot. In this beautiful novel, the United States has become largely unlivable and so Bea takes her ailing daughter Agnes to live in one of the last patches of wilderness. Life there is unremittingly hard but possible, and in that possibility Cook finds humor, incredible heart and something like hope. Buried deep inside is a reckoning with our place in nature and what wilderness and wildness look like when we don’t turn away in fear."
"Diane Cook's excellent forthcoming novel "The New Wilderness.""