Annihilation : Book 1

by VanderMeer, Jeff

Science fiction

Published 30/07/2015 by HarperCollins Publishers (Fourth Estate Ltd) in the United Kingdom as part of The Southern Reach Trilogy series.

Paperback | 208 pages

‘A contemporary masterpiece’

GUARDIAN

‘Creepy and fascinating’ STEPHEN KING

‘A psycho-geograpical tour de force’

FINANCIAL TIMES

ADAPTED INTO A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

With a new introduction by award-winning author Karen Joy Fowler.

In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s now-classic Southern Reach series, Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades and nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilisation. Expedition after expedition into Area X has failed to uncover its mysteries and the true nature of its danger to the world.

Now a twelfth expedition makes the attempt, a group of four women: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist and the narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X.

A harrowing cosmic mystery at the vanguard of eco-fiction, Annihilation has only become more pertinent to our reality ten years after its first publication.

‘Genuinely potent and dream-haunting’

GUARDIAN

‘Arresting, unsettling, and unforgettable’

NEW YORKER

‘The best bits turn your mind inside out’

WASHINGTON POST

‘Shot through with echoes of Lovecraft, Orwell, and Kafka … compulsively readable’

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY