'The first lesson reading teaches is how to be alone'

The Crystal World Paperback
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The Crystal World

Robert Macfarlane and J. G. Ballard

Through a ‘leaking’ of time, the West African jungle starts to crystallize. Trees metamorphose into enormous jewels. Crocodiles encased in second glittering skins lurch down the river. Pythons with huge blind gemstone eyes rear in heraldic poses. Most flee the area in terror, afraid to face a catastrophe they cannot understand.

But some, dazzled and strangely entranced, remain to drift through this dreamworld forest: a doctor in pursuit of his ex-mistress, an enigmatic Jesuit wielding a crystal cross and a tribe of lepers searching for Paradise.

In this tour de force of the imagination, Ballard transports the reader into one of his most unforgettable landscapes.

This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard’s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including James Lever, Ali Smith, Hari Kunzru and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.

Reviews of The Crystal World

    • ‘Something magical and not to be missed’ Guardian
    • ‘Beautifully rendered … Ballard the poet in full ecstatic blast’Anthony Burgess
    • ‘Of all the unknown regions Ballard’s imagination has opened up, this crystalline forest is the most haunting’ Guardian
    • ‘A haunting vision of diseased beauty … Ballard sustains it with extraordinary intensity’ Observer
    • ‘Ballard transports us once more into his own mystical, glittering and poetic universe’ Sunday Telegraph
    • ‘The terrifying thing about Ballard is his logic; is this science fiction or history written ahead of its time?’ Len Deighton

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