Description

Magnus lives on Aerth, which is currently moving into
an Ice Age, with a strange virus limiting the population.
When the planet Urth is discovered, he vows to
become an astronaut and travel there, but on arriving
he finds it hot, crowded, corrupt and violent, despite it
being initially welcoming. Slowly Magnus realises he
will not find what he’s looking for, but there seems no
way back.

Aerth is a story about migration, climate, conspiracy
theories and interplanetary homelessness.

Publisher Review

Ali Smith says:

“What planet are we on? Can we leave? Does it mean
we can never go home again if we do? What does a
phrase like worlds apart really mean? Deep-forged,
witty and resonant, this dimensionally stunning novella
deals with dystopia and hope in a way that reveals
them as profoundly related. A work of real energy and
narrative grip, brilliantly earthy and airy at once, it
blasts open a reader’s past/future consciousness and
taps into literary antecedents as disparate as Hardy
and Atwood. Funny, terrifying, humane, this is a
thrilling journey in a story the size of a planet – no, the
size of several, all of them altogether strange and
uncannily familiar.”