The Wildlands: A Novel - Hardcover

Geni, Abby

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1619022346 ISBN 13: 9781619022348

Publisher: Counterpoint, 2018

Synopsis

"Geni's fascination with the borders between human and animal drives this distinctive sophomore novel . . . Geni continues to create works of art with perfect voices that are simultaneously thrillers and meditations on nature. It is an incredible trick." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

When a Category 5 tornado ravaged Mercy, Oklahoma, no family in the small town lost more than the McClouds. Their home and farm were instantly demolished, and orphaned siblings Darlene, Jane, and Cora made media headlines. This relentless national attention and the tornado’s aftermath caused great tension with their brother, Tucker, who soon abandoned his sisters and disappeared.

On the three-year anniversary of the tornado, a cosmetics factory outside of Mercy is bombed, and the lab animals trapped within are released. Tucker reappears, injured from the blast, and seeks the help of nine-year-old Cora. Caught up in the thrall of her charismatic brother, whom she has desperately missed, Cora agrees to accompany Tucker on a cross-country mission to make war on human civilization.

Cora becomes her brother’s unwitting accomplice, taking on a new identity while engaging in acts of escalating violence. Darlene works with Mercy police to find her siblings, leading to an unexpected showdown at a zoo in Southern California. The Wildlands is another remarkable literary thriller from critically acclaimed writer Abby Geni, one that examines what happens when one family becomes trapped in the tenuous space between the human and animal worlds.

About this title

About the Author:

ABBY GENI is the author of The Lightkeepers, winner of the 2016 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction and the inaugural Chicago Review of Books Award for Best Fiction, as well as The Last Animal, an Indies Introduce Debut Authors selection and a finalist for the Orion Book Award. Geni is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a recipient of the Iowa Fellowship. Find out more at www.abbygeni.com.

Review:

Praise for The Wildlands

A Title to Pick Up Now (O, The Oprah Magazine)
A Best Book of the Year (BuzzFeed)
A Best Book of the Year (Kirkus Reviews)
1 of 20 New Books to Read in September (Entertainment Weekly)
1 of 10 Books to Read in September (BBC Culture)
Finalist for the Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award
One of the Best Fall Books of 2018 (Buzzfeed)
1 of 15 Books of September 2018 We Can't Wait to Read (Refinery29)
1 of 13 Best New Fiction Books Coming Out in September (Bustle)
1 of 20 New Books Your Friends Are Going to Be Talking About This September (PopSugar)
1 of 15 Upcoming Releases From Our Favorite Small Presses (Book Riot)
1 of 34 Fall 2018 Books We Can't Wait to Read (HuffPost)
1 of 18 New Books We Think You’ll Wanna Backpack This Summer (Paperback Paris)
1 of 14 New Books You Need to Know This Week (Bustle)
1 of 75 Spectacular New Books You Need to Read This Fall (Book Riot)
1 of 101 of the Best Books of 2018 (So Far) (Real Simple)
1 of 115 New Movies, TV Shows, Albums, and Books to Check Out in September (Fast Company)
A Most Anticipated in the Second Half of 2018 (The Millions)

"Geni's character-driven environmental thriller―think Silent Spring by way of Celeste Ng―centers on the survivors of a tornado that destroys an Oklahoma farm and kills the family's father." ―O, The Oprah Magazine

"Tantalizing . . . Geni brilliantly captures the magnetism of a fanatic whose diagnosis of society’s ills is spot-on but whose conclusions are deranged." ―The Washington Post

"Every scene of this cleverly plotted novel is drawn with complex prose, rich detail, and an authorial voice that wisely observes the human animal. Abby Geni is my new favorite writer." ―Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of Mothers, Tell Your Daughters

"Abby Geni's haunting literary thriller, The Wildlands, explores humans' relationships with nature and what drives a person to fanaticism." ―Real Simple

"From the moment Abby Geni’s second novel starts, you know you’re in good hands . . . Geni spins a careful, humane, moving story . . . The Wildlands is [a novel] filled with rewards for the patient reader." ―Charles Finch, USA Today

"[An] impressive second novel . . . Geni’s genius is that she makes us empathise with every member of this troubled family, and also with the animals Tucker yearns to protect." ―Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture

"Unforgiving landscapes, untamed nature and animal instincts remain propulsive themes for Chicago-based author Abby Geni. In her latest literary thriller, The Wildlands, she tells the harrowing story of the McClouds, an Oklahoma family that loses everything in a Category 5 tornado, after which two of the orphaned siblings go rogue and commit acts of violence." ―Chicago Tribune

About this edition

• Publisher: Counterpoint
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1619022346
• ISBN 13: 9781619022348
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368