'Fiction is a solution, the best solution, to the problem of existential solitude'

The Drought

The Drought

M. John Harrison and J. G. Ballard

By the bestselling author of ‘Cocaine Nights’ and ‘Super-Cannes’ – the world is threatened by dramatic climate change in this highly acclaimed and influential novel.

Water. Man’s most precious commodity is a luxury of the past. Radioactive waste from years of industrial dumping has caused the sea to form a protective skin strong enough to devastate the Earth it once sustained. And while the remorseless sun beats down on the dying land, civilization itself begins to crack. Violence erupts and insanity reigns as the remnants of mankind struggle for survival in a worldwide desert of despair.

Remarkable for its prescience and the originality of its vision, The Drought is a work of major importance from the early career of one of Britain’s most acclaimed novelists.

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

Reviews of The Drought

    • ‘The terrifying thing about Ballard is his logic; is this science fiction or history written ahead of its time?’ Len Deighton
    • ‘More intelligent and more strange than almost any other novel’ Brian Aldiss
    • ‘At a time when we live with constant warnings of a world destroyed by global warming, it is easy to forget that writers such as Ballard were exploring the fear of global blight nearly forty years ago’ The Times
    • ‘It is weird; it is grotesque; it is magnificently Gothic’ Sunday Times
    • ‘A strange and wonderful book’ Guardian

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