Terrestrial History
A Novel
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Hannah is a fusion scientist working alone at a remote cottage off the coast of Scotland when she sees a figure making his way from the sea. It is a visitor from the future, a young man from a human settlement on Mars, traveling backwards through time to try to make a crucial intervention in the fate of our dying planet, and he needs Hannah's help. Laboring in the warmth of a Scottish summer, Hannah and the stranger are on the path towards a breakthrough--and then things go terribly wrong. Joe Mungo Reed's intricately crafted novel expands from this extraordinary event, drawing together the stories of four lives reckoning with what it means to take fate into their own hands, moving from the last days of civilization on Earth through the birth of another on Mars. Roban lives in the Colony, one of the first generation born to this sterile new outpost, where he is consumed by longing for the lost wonders of a home planet he never knew. Between Hannah and Roban, two generations, a father and a daughter, face an uncertain future in a world that is falling apart. Andrew is a politician running to be Scotland's First Minister. Andrew believes there is still time for the human spirit to triumph, if only he can persuade people to band together. For his starkly rationalist daughter Kenzie, this idealism doesn't offer the hard tools needed to keep the rising floods at bay. And so, she signs on to work for a company that would abandon Earth for the promise of a world beyond--in contravention of all Andrew stands for. In considering which concerns should guide us in a time of crisis--social, technological, or familial--and reckoning with the question of whether there is meaning to be found in the pursuit of salvation beyond success itself, Joe Mungo Reed has written a novel of elegiac wonder and beauty.
About this Author
Joe Mungo Reed is the author of the novels Hammer and We Begin Our Ascent. He teaches creative writing at the University of Cambridge and lives in London.
Reviews
"An affecting, emotional story about loss, community, and the false promise that we may somehow be able to find a convenient escape from the consequences of our actions...Reed asks us to consider what might be easier to change -- the laws of physics or human nature?"
"Lyrical, heady. ... Writers as diverse as Chang-rae Lee, Jennifer Egan and Ali Smith have circled around a pair of perplexing questions: What does the near-future wish to tell us? And can we save ourselves? "Terrestrial History" is Joe Mungo Reed's piercing, poetic answer."
"A satisfying work of climate fiction involving interplanetary time travel...and the conclusion packs an emotional wallop. Fans of slipstream fiction like Cloud Atlas will find a great deal to enjoy here."
"[Terrestrial History] succeeds in brilliantly dramatizing some of the great questions of our time. Can we technologize our way out of the climate crisis or should we instead focus our energies on collaboratively solving the problem with the tools we have? Is Earth our only viable planetary home or can we adequately replicate its richness elsewhere? If the latter, who will get to go? And what fate awaits those left behind? And is the future worth living for those who manage to leave?"
"Science Fiction, lyrical lament, generational fissures, apocalyptic reality... this is a novel that strikes all the notes. Terrestrial History is smart, engrossing, devastating, and brought to an impeccable finish."
"Terrestrial History is many things: an intimate family story, an ambitious novel of ideas, a poignant parable of human striving, and an intricately imagined climate fiction. Joe Mungo Reed writes beautiful, precise prose; every sentence is glorious. I have never read such a tender elegy for our planet."
"I can't wait to press Joe Mungo Reed's Terrestrial History into the hands of anyone curious about climate disaster and colonizing Mars. While tech magnates litter our planet with flaming spaceship debris, Reed masterfully traces the human costs of these endeavors."
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