The New Wilderness

'The New Wilderness is a many-layered dystopian fiction set in the not too distant future. It's the environmental novel of our times. We were impressed by the novel taking on the greatest story of our times – climate change – and yet it's a novel that focuses through relationships.' 

'The New Wilderness is a virtuosic debut, brutal and beautiful in equal measure.'

‘Cook’s propulsive tale is moved along as much by the engrossingly complex mother-daughter relationship that develops as by the Community’s grim attempts to survive… The New Wilderness is a well-formed and powerful piece of writing.’

'Soulful, urgent... Cook is adept at matter-of-factly deploying unadorned detail to deadpanning, gut-plummeting effect... Supremely well-crafted... So much else is broached in these vivid, timely pages: tribalism, courage, consumption, storytelling itself – an art that Cook spirits back to its spark-enlivened, campfire origins. What lingers, though, beyond the awesome power of Bea and Agnes as heroines, is pure wonderment at all in this world of ours that is not human.'

'Wonderfully imagined and written, this is a tense future-shock novel that's also a tender exploration of a mother-daughter relationship under extreme pressure... An urgent novel reflective of what is  happening in society right now.'

'The New Wilderness is Diane Cook's debut novel that brings to life a wildly imaginative and terrifying dystopian story of a mother's battle to save her daughter from a world ravaged by climate change. Touching on humanity and our contempt for nature, this is a timely and compelling novel.'

'The unease between mother and daughter as they navigate disparate understandings of self, belonging, society and each other is the beating heart of the novel... Cook takes command of a fast-paced, thrilling story to ask stomach-turning questions in a moment when it would benefit every soul to have their stomach turned by the prospect of the future she envisions.'  

'This Booker-longlisted novel's driving questions – who will live and who will die? And which kind of leadership will triumph along the way? – remind us, in a compelling fashion, why we read at all: to learn how better to survive.'

'A visceral, elemental performance... Dense with believable detail.'

'Riveting... Bleakly compelling, and leavened by wry, sparkling humour that Cook combines seamlessly with existential dread.'

'This gut-wrenching story of survival, danger, power, control and, most importantly, love is one you won’t want to put down.'

'This Booker-longlisted novel’s driving questions – who will live and who will die? And which kinds of leadership will triumph along the way? – remind us, in a compelling fashion, why we read at all: to learn how better to survive.'