Jim Crace — The Pesthouse

Picador 2008 Paperback, 324pp. A devastated America exists in an imagined future. Its technologies are forgotten, its communities have splintered and its refugees, reversing the course of history, travel eastwards in search of safety and a new start. Among them are Franklin and Margaret, young, bereft, forced together by circumstance; but finding that love, courage and determination can endure even as a country breaks slowly apart. ‘Evoking the cracked terrain of a depleted America, Crace proves himself a fine stylist, sensitive to the cadence of every sentence’ Financial Times ‘Entirely compelling. The story is a gripping, harrowing adventure tale and Crace’s language is extraordinary. The Pesthouse resonates like an unresolved chord’ New Statesman ‘Gripping, exciting and oddly romantic’ Daily Mail. (ISBN: 9780330445634). Good.