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The Terranauts
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Description
Linda is desperate to be one of the lucky eight chosen to take part in the world's most ambitious ecological experiment. Gazing longingly at Ecosphere II, which rises like a spaceship from the Arizona desert, Linda knows she can survive under its glass dome. Competition is fierce between the hopefuls, among them smooth-talking PR man Ramsay, and Dawn, a naïve beauty. All are certain that they would never, ever, break closure before two years are up – unlike their discredited predecessors.
Inside this humid microcosm, the terranauts' labours over crops and livestock, their battles with creepy crawlies, their hostilities and sexual dalliances are all observed by the tourists who come to gawp, Mission Control's cameras and the watchful eye of the media. As the crew struggles to control nature, and hunger sets in, the snake in this Eden starts to look unmistakably human.
Inspired by real-life events, The Terranauts is a darkly comic, acutely insightful story of human behaviour, animal instincts, idealism and ambition. Placing utopian visions and individual motives under the microscope, this is T. C. Boyle at his acerbic, pitch-perfect best.
Product details
Published | 20 Oct 2016 |
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Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 528 |
ISBN | 9781408881736 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Paperbacks |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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Based on a similar experiment in the Arizona desert in the 1990s, The Terranauts is funny, but not always in a way you can laugh at. Boyle's dissections are far too accurate. One moment you're watching the antics of a narcissistic cast; the next you're finding it all heartbreakingly human. One thing is for certain: by the last few chapters, you know that you would pay not to live in an Elon Musk-financed habitat on Mars
Guardian
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T. C. Boyle is by far and away one of the most inventive, adventurous and accomplished fiction writers in the US today ... Most of all, he is a mesmerising storyteller
Lionel Shriver
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Boyle is a writer who chooses a large canvas and fills it to the edges
Barbara Kingsolver
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A virtuoso craftsman
Annie Proulx
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A sort of Frank Zappa of American letters … Boyle is incapable of writing a boring sentence
Financial Times
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Like the brilliant Karl Ove Knausgaard, he can make the cooking of a pork chop so exciting that you find yourself on the edge of your seat … a master
The Times