Annihilation : Book 1 – 9780008139100

‘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