Description

A NEW SCIENTIST BEST SCIENCE FICTION BOOK OF 2024

A lone ship journeys south, heading for the furthest reaches of Antarctica. It belongs to Sky, the billionaire behind a groundbreaking project to salvage the region. On board is disgraced environmental activist Ivy Cunningham, lending her expertise in the hope that it might rescue her reputation – and perhaps even mend her broken relationship with her son.

And yet, as the ship moves ever deeper into the breathtaking but eerie landscape, Ivy grows increasingly suspicious of her fellow passengers, and starts to question the project’s motives.

If she could leave, she would – but she knows there’s no way home.

Exhilarating, terrifying and thought-provoking at once, The Edge of Solitude is a story of climate emergency and human fallibility, of the clash of ambition and principle, and of the choices we make when we know that time is running out.

Publisher Review

This intelligent, tense eco-thriller made me shiver with creeping dread. Katie Hale’s ice-cool exploration of guilt is also a total pleasure — CLARE POLLARD Powerful, authoritative, atmospheric and wise — JOANNE HARRIS Fascinating, immersive and brilliantly poised. Essential reading for all humans. We don’t have enough books like it — MOLLY AITKEN Set in a worryingly plausible future where the possibility of reversing climate change is reliant on the whims of billionaires, The Edge of Solitude is not a book to miss. Disgraced activist Ivy Cunningham is a monstrously human creation, testament to Hale’s formidable ability to delve into complex and flawed psyches — CAILEAN STEED Beautifully written and exquisitely tense, this is eco-fiction at its best. I loved it — C.J. COOKE Praise for My Name Is Monster: Fresh and powerful . . . Hale’s writing is assured and . . . strikingly beautiful . . . Hale is certainly a skilful writer with a compelling voice, and her ideas are bold and promising * * Guardian * * Taut, tough and sensitive, the narrative conjures up a devastated world, inhabited by two intriguing characters, with precision and real atmosphere * * Daily Mail * * Katie Hale has written two fascinating, flawed and compelling characters and, with only two people and an empty world, has created a novel that is gripping, insightful and unique — CLAIRE FULLER A terrific piece of writing; tough and tender and insightful. Loved it — JOANNE HARRIS A complex, accomplished debut. The prose dazzles while the themes of feminism, power and fertility sneak in for a gut-punch. It kept me gripped from the first page, and the characters continue to live and breathe in my imagination — KIRSTY LOGAN