From Doris Lessing,winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature,this is the first instalment in the visionary novel cycle'Canopus in Argos: Archives'.
The story of the final days of our planet is told through the reports of Johor,an emissary sent from Canopus. Earth,now named Shikasta (the Stricken) by the kindly,paternalistic Canopeans who colonised it many centuries ago,is under the influence of the evil empire of Puttiora. War,famine,disease and environmental disasters ravage the planet. To Johor,mankind is a'totally crazed species',racing towards annihilation: his orders to save humanity set him what seems to be an impossible task.
Blending myth,fable and allegory,Doris Lessing's astonishing visionary creation both reflects and redefines the history of our own world from its earliest beginnings to an inevitable,tragic self-destruction.
Publisher: HarperCollins PublishersISBN: 9780006547198Number of pages: 448Weight: 300 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 27 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Magnificent...an astouding book that sets out to chronicle the whole world of humanity,spirit,earth,stars,soul,virtue,evil,pre-Eden forever'Myrna Blumberg,The Times
'Profound,relevant and daring'Rachel Billington,Financial Times
'Shikasta is a piercing diagnosis of the unease spreading through our civilization. A powerful fable.'W.L. Webb,Guardian
'Shikasta is at once a brief history of the world,a tract against human destructiveness,an ode to the natural beauties of this earth and a hymn to the music of the spheres.'Time
Doris Lessing
One of fiction's great polymaths,over a prolific career Doris Lessing took on memoir,post-modern fiction,poetry,libretto and science fiction and produced work of dazzling fearlessness. Debuting in 1950 with The Grass is Singing, Lessing's work was often a reflection of her own political belief and experience,whether via her hugely personal masterwork The Golden Notebook or the Sufi-inspired science fiction of her Canopus in Argos: Archives. Amongst her many literary achievements,in 2007 Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Visit the Doris Lessing author page
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