'We're all strange inside'

Running Wild Paperback

Running Wild

J. G. Ballard

Pangbourne Village is exclusive, expensive and protected from the outside world by the very latest in security systems. A seeming idyll of family life; the perfect place to bring up a child. So why, in the space of ten minutes early one morning, were the thirty-two adult residents brutally murdered, and all thirteen children abducted? After months of fruitless investigation – and no word of the children or a ransom – the police are mystified. It is only when psychiatrist Richard Greville is called in that the truth behind the massacre gradually becomes clear.

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

Reviews of Running Wild

  • ‘A tight, macabre tale…A well-constructed and superbly written novella. As a malevolent gesture in the direction of facts we prefer to ignore, it provides a salutary chill.’ Jonathan Coe, Guardian

    ‘In words as crisp as a well-cut film, Ballard’s gripping story shocks middle-class assumptions to the roots.’ Mail on Sunday

    ‘Has the impact of a black-and-white television documentary. The writing is elegant, taut and economical, the story gripping.’ Sunday Times

    ‘A particularly chilling fable…Ballard in a nutshell.’ Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

    ‘Simultaneously a detective novel, a psychological horror novel and a dystopian political novel. “Running Wild” may well be remembered as one of the major political novels of our time.’ New York Review of Science Fiction

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