Absolution: A Southern Reach Novel (#4)

Description

The surprise fourth volume in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach series—& the final word…After a decade away, Jeff VanderMeer is heading back into Area X. In 2014, the author released all three parts of the Southern Reach trilogy over the span of just a few months, & the series became a breakout hit; the first was even adapted into a Hollywood film from director Alex Garland. Starting with Annihilation & culminating with Acceptance, the books told the story of an abandoned coastal area that had become reclaimed — and forever changed — by a mysterious phenomenon known as Area X & the secret agency attempting to understand & contain it.The trilogy solidified VanderMeer’s particular style of surreal sci-fi & environmental activism… But there were questions that always lingered after Acceptance. And while he had been thinking about a potential new Southern Reach book since 2017, it wasn’t until 2023 that all of the pieces fell into place.That book would turn into Absolution, a prequel… It’s split into three parts & largely follows two characters from the original trilogy: Old Jim, a resident of the abandoned village in Area X, & Lowry, sole survivor of the first expedition into the phenomenon. The book is haunting, strange, & disturbingly funny (just wait until you meet the carnivorous rabbits)…“I was grappling at one point with how I would tell the story after Acceptance. The solution in my subconscious was Absolution, which is something that’s both a prequel and, sneakily, a sequel & also contiguous with the events in the first three books.” — Andrew Webster, The Verge°°°Jeff VanderMeer insists that he does not predict the future. Yet mere weeks before his new novel, Absolution, hit shelves, Hurricane Helene tore through the part of Florida where he lives, sharing an uncanny likeness to the fictional hurricane in his book. — Siri Chilukuri, Mother Jones