Synopses & Reviews
2009 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICEOut on the frontier of a failed state, a plane crashes at the edge of an abandoned city. Sheriff Makepeace, the city's last citizen, resolves to go in search of the plane's origins and what is left of a world ravaged by climate change and war. In this startling, post-apocalyptic landscape, Makepeace encounters violent stockaded villages, irradiated cities, and work camps laboring to harness the technologies of a vanished civilization. Far North is "an absorbing end-of-days fable" (GQ), and an adventure through an unforgettable land, in the company of a remarkable hero for our times.
Marcel Theroux is the author of three previous novels and the winner of the 2002 Somerset Maugham Award. He is also a documentary filmmaker and television presenter. He lives in London. A National Book Award FinalistA New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Out on the frontier of a failed state, a plane crashes at the edge of an abandoned city. Sheriff Makepeace, the city's last citizen, resolves to go in search of the plane's origins and what is left of a world ravaged by climate change and war. In this startling, post-apocalyptic landscape, Makepeace encounters violent stockaded villages, irradiated cities, and work camps laboring to harness the technologies of a vanished civilization. Far North is "an absorbing end-of-days fable" (GQ), and an adventure through an unforgettable land, in the company of a remarkable hero for our times. This National Book Award finalist and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice is an enthralling, poetic adventure set in post-apocalyptic Siberia.
"In Marcel Therouxs postcollapse novel, Far North, global warming has reduced civilization to largely preindustrial levels of technology and made sparsely populated areas like the Siberian tundra safer than lawless cities. Theres a satisfying sadness and finality to Therouxs vision, but the storys true power comes from the hard-won victories of its remarkable narrator, Makepeace. 'A person is always better than a book,' Makepeace claims, and the novels enduring achievement is to give us a protagonist who lives up to that claim."Jeff Vandermeer, The New York Times Book Review
"Far North may well be the first great cautionary fable of climate change. Marcel Theroux's homespun tale about a solitary frontier survivor conjures up a monolithic world that's ominous and deeply memorable. He depicts a bleak Earth transformed, perhaps a century or two from now, by global warming and a society reduced to a mostly empty, radioactive husk; the remnant peoples are violent, ignorant and few and far between. Against the gray backdrop of abandoned towns, poisoned cities and occasional wildlife, a tough, hardy frontierswoman named Makepeace struggles to eke out a living on the strange and swiftly changing land . . . If Far North gets off to a bit of a slow start, its caution is forgivable: In depicting a devastated planet, Theroux clearly wanted to avoid the expository shorthand of much speculative and science fiction by easing into his world. And that restraint pays off; we stay close to Makepeace through the cruelty of her physical hardships, the falling away of all companions and the perpetual solitude that would be unbearable to read from a more melodramatic writer. Makepeace's end-of-the-world diary has substance and snatches of lovely sadness, as when she sees the migration of tropical animals into the now-green, formerly snowy wastes of Siberia . . . What makes Far North so credible is precisely the elusiveness of its revelations, the imperfection of Makepeace's understanding of her world, of the complex physical and social revolutions that brought her people to this post-apocalyptic pass. In the chaos of a dying civilization, nothing is lost so easily as the knowledge of history. And no detail in the story rings quite so true to contemporary American life as the fact that Makepeace, who begins and ends this tale scrounging in the rubble for ancient books to preserve for posterity, also has zero interest in reading them."Lydia Millet, The Washington Post
"70,000 settlers from the US and elsewhere have travelled to Siberia to make that most inhospitable of places their home. As climate change had made the summers longer and the winters milder, it seemed a smart alternative to the old, crowded, decaying cities. Yet this new dawn is more like a throwback sunset: in the face of disaster, civilisation's fragile attempts to build cities collapse into slave camps, frontier-style lawlessness and brutality. Far North is that unusual thing, a work of literary science fiction. It is The Handmaid's Tale meets Huckleberry Finn and High Plains Drifter. This new twist on dystopia is compellingly icy."New Scientist
"A suspenseful, gripping vision of catastrophe wrought by the warring human impulses of greed and imagination."The Dallas Morning News
"Theroux is a master storyteller, and the narrative is as full of surprises as it is of murders. And in Makepeace he's created the moral centre of a heartless world: hardened by . . . experiences [yet] capable of great courage, friendship and loyalty, so that the bleak vision of this novel contains a glint of consolation."Brandon Robshaw, The Independent on Sunday (five stars)
"How refreshing to meet Makepeace Hatfield, who faces a world gone wild with hope, humor, and a scrappy tenacity that manages to find beauty in a ravaged arctic landscape, and hangs on to humanity against all odds."Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness
"It's a great pleasure to fall into the pages of a natural-born storyteller. If you're looking for an unforgettable character, your search ends here."Russell Hoban, author of Riddley Walker
"Imaginative and extremely well written."Kate Saunders, The Times (London)
"An atmospheric tale of a near-future dystopia . . . One for fans of Margaret Atwood."The Evening Standard
"Marcel Theroux delivers a masterly sleight-of-hand . . . and after the third chapter deftly pulls the rug from under the reader's feet. I was completely duped. It is set in a cruel Siberian landscape that is dotted with slave camps and where 'human beings are rat-cunning and will happily kill you twice over for a hot meal.' This is an action-packed, dystopian adventure story with cracking set pieces."Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler
"Theroux's postapocalyptic road novel will inevitably be compared to that other postapocalyptic road novel Oprah liked, and while Theroux (son of Paul) is not the existential stylist McCarthy is, he is a superior plotter. Global warming has decimated civilization, and narrator Makepeace Hatfield is the sole survivor of her Siberian settlement. After coming across another survivor and seeing a plane in the sky, Makepeace heads out to find other settlements. Unfortunately, Horeb, the first settlement she finds, is Hobbesian, and the camp's leader, Reverend Boathwaite, sells her into a slave gang. Marched a thousand miles west to an old gulag, Makepeace spends five years as a slave and eventually escapes after she's dispatched as a slave-guard to a ravaged city now known as the Zone. Teaming up with another escaped slave, the two try to trek back to Makepeace's original home, but tragedy strikes again . . . Theroux succeeds in crafting a wildly eccentric and intelligent page-turner that's ultimately and strangely hopeful."Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
“Sublime . . . There is a satisfying sadness and finality to Theroux's vision.” —
The New York Times Book Review“The first great cautionary fable of climate change. Marcel Theroux's homespun tale about a solitary frontier survivor conjures up a monolithic world that's ominous and deeply memorable.” —Lydia Millet, The Washington Post
“A suspenseful, gripping vision of catastrophe wrought by the warring human impulses of greed and imagination.” —The Dallas Morning News
“Theroux has managed to pull off a macho novel that would appeal to both male and female readers. . . . . Who would have thought that a novel of doom could be so interesting . . . so . . . enjoyable? A real page-turner that's a surprising romp beyond despair.” —The Globe and Mail
“How refreshing to meet Makepeace Hatfield, who faces a world gone wild with hope, humor, and a scrappy tenacity that manages to find beauty in a ravaged arctic landscape, and hangs on to humanity against all odds.” —Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness
“Theroux is a master storyteller, and the narrative is as full of surprises as it is of murders. And in Makepeace hes created the moral centre of a heartless world: hardened by . . . experiences [yet] capable of great courage, friendship and loyalty, so that the bleak vision of this novel contains a glint of consolation.” —Brandon Robshaw, The Independent on Sunday (five stars)
“An absorbing end-of-days fable.” —GQ
“Its a great pleasure to fall into the pages of a natural-born storyteller. If youre looking for an unforgettable character, your search ends here.” —Russell Hoban, author of Riddley Walker“Imaginative and extremely well written.” —Kate Saunders, The Times (London)
“An atmospheric tale of a near-future dystopia . . . One for fans of Margaret Atwood.” —Evening Standard
“Marcel Theroux delivers a masterly sleight-of-hand . . . and after the third chapter deftly pulls the rug from under the readers feet. I was completely duped. It is set in a cruel Siberian landscape that is dotted with slave camps and where ‘human beings are rat-cunning and will happily kill you twice over for a hot meal. This is an action-packed, dystopian adventure story with cracking set pieces.” —Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler
“Therouxs postapocalyptic road novel will inevitably be compared to that other postapocalyptic road novel Oprah liked, and while Theroux . . . is not the existential stylist McCarthy is, he is a superior plotter . . . Theroux succeeds in crafting a wildly eccentric and intelligent page-turner thats ultimately and strangely hopeful.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
“Sublime . . . There is a satisfying sadness and finality to Theroux's vision.”
The New York Times Book Review“The first great cautionary fable of climate change. Marcel Theroux's homespun tale about a solitary frontier survivor conjures up a monolithic world that's ominous and deeply memorable.” Lydia Millet, The Washington Post
“A suspenseful, gripping vision of catastrophe wrought by the warring human impulses of greed and imagination.” The Dallas Morning News
“Theroux has managed to pull off a macho novel that would appeal to both male and female readers. . . . . Who would have thought that a novel of doom could be so interesting . . . so . . . enjoyable? A real page-turner that's a surprising romp beyond despair.” The Globe and Mail
“How refreshing to meet Makepeace Hatfield, who faces a world gone wild with hope, humor, and a scrappy tenacity that manages to find beauty in a ravaged arctic landscape, and hangs on to humanity against all odds.” Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness
“Theroux is a master storyteller, and the narrative is as full of surprises as it is of murders. And in Makepeace hes created the moral centre of a heartless world: hardened by . . . experiences [yet] capable of great courage, friendship and loyalty, so that the bleak vision of this novel contains a glint of consolation.” Brandon Robshaw, The Independent on Sunday (five stars)
“An absorbing end-of-days fable.” GQ
“Its a great pleasure to fall into the pages of a natural-born storyteller. If youre looking for an unforgettable character, your search ends here.” Russell Hoban, author of Riddley Walker“Imaginative and extremely well written.” Kate Saunders, The Times (London)
“An atmospheric tale of a near-future dystopia . . . One for fans of Margaret Atwood.” Evening Standard
“Marcel Theroux delivers a masterly sleight-of-hand . . . and after the third chapter deftly pulls the rug from under the readers feet. I was completely duped. It is set in a cruel Siberian landscape that is dotted with slave camps and where ‘human beings are rat-cunning and will happily kill you twice over for a hot meal. This is an action-packed, dystopian adventure story with cracking set pieces.” Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler
“Therouxs postapocalyptic road novel will inevitably be compared to that other postapocalyptic road novel Oprah liked, and while Theroux . . . is not the existential stylist McCarthy is, he is a superior plotter . . . Theroux succeeds in crafting a wildly eccentric and intelligent page-turner thats ultimately and strangely hopeful.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Synopsis
2009 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICEOut on the frontier of a failed state, a plane crashes at the edge of an abandoned city. Sheriff Makepeace, the city's last citizen, resolves to go in search of the plane's origins and what is left of a world ravaged by climate change and war. In this startling, post-apocalyptic landscape, Makepeace encounters violent stockaded villages, irradiated cities, and work camps laboring to harness the technologies of a vanished civilization. Far North is "an absorbing end-of-days fable" (GQ), and an adventure through an unforgettable land, in the company of a remarkable hero for our times.
Marcel Theroux is the author of three previous novels and the winner of the 2002 Somerset Maugham Award. He is also a documentary filmmaker and television presenter. He lives in London. A National Book Award Finalist
Out on the far northern border of a failed state, Makepeacesheriff and perhaps the last citizenpatrols the city ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.
Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.
What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling, stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice, and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeaces journeyrife with dangeralso leads to an unexpected redemption.
Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanitys origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the worlds fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses. "Theroux is a master storyteller, and the narrative is as full of surprises as it is of murders. And in Makepeace he's created the moral centre of a heartless world: hardened by . . . experiences [yet] capable of great courage, friendship and loyalty, so that the bleak vision of this novel contains a glint of consolation."Brandon Robshaw, The Independent on Sunday (five stars) "How refreshing to meet Makepeace Hatfield, who faces a world gone wild with hope, humor, and a scrappy tenacity that manages to find beauty in a ravaged arctic landscape, and hangs on to humanity against all odds."Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness "It's a great pleasure to fall into the pages of a natural-born storyteller. If you're looking for an unforgettable character, your search ends here."Russell Hoban, author of Riddley Walker "Imaginative and extremely well written."Kate Saunders, The Times (London) "An atmospheric tale of a near-future dystopia . . . One for fans of Margaret Atwood."The Evening Standard
"Marcel Theroux delivers a masterly sleight-of-hand . . . and after the third chapter deftly pulls the rug from under the reader's feet. I was completely duped. It is set in a cruel Siberian landscape that is dotted with slave camps and where 'human beings are rat-cunning and will happily kill you twice over for a hot meal.' This is an action-packed, dystopian adventure story with cracking set pieces."Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler
"Theroux's postapocalyptic road novel will inevitably be compared to that other postapocalyptic road novel Oprah liked, and while Theroux (son of Paul) is not the existential stylist McCarthy is, he is a superior plotter. Global warming has decimated civilization, and narrator Makepeace Hatfield is the sole survivor of her Siberian settlement. After coming across another survivor and seeing a plane in the sky, Makepeace heads out to find other settlements. Unfortunately, Horeb, the first settlement she finds, is Hobbesian, and the camp's leader, Reverend Boathwaite, sells her into a slave gang. Marched a thousand miles west to an old gulag, Makepeace spends five years as a slave and eventually escapes after she's dispatched as a slave-guard to a ravaged city now known as the Zone. Teaming up with another escaped slave, the two try to trek back to Makepeace's original home, but tragedy strikes again . . . Theroux succeeds in crafting a wildly eccentric and intelligent page-turner that's ultimately and strangely hopeful."Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Synopsis
2009 National Book Award FinalistMy father had an expression for a thing that turned out bad. Hed say it had gone west. But going west always sounded pretty good to me. After all, westwards is the path of the sun. And through as much history as I know of, people have moved west to settle and find freedom. But our world had gone north, truly gone north, and just how far north I was beginning to learn.
Out on the frontier of a failed state, Makepeacesheriff and perhaps last citizenpatrols a citys ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.
Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee emerges from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.
What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling: stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeaces journeyrife with dangeralso leads to an unexpected redemption.
Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanitys origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the worlds fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses.
Marcel Theroux is the author of three previous novels and the winner of the 2002 Somerset Maugham Award. He is also a documentary filmmaker and television presenter. He lives in London. A National Book Award Finalist
Out on the far northern border of a failed state, Makepeacesheriff and perhaps the last citizenpatrols the city ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.
Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.
What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling, stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice, and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeaces journeyrife with dangeralso leads to an unexpected redemption.
Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanitys origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the worlds fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses. "Theroux is a master storyteller, and the narrative is as full of surprises as it is of murders. And in Makepeace he's created the moral centre of a heartless world: hardened by . . . experiences [yet] capable of great courage, friendship and loyalty, so that the bleak vision of this novel contains a glint of consolation."Brandon Robshaw, The Independent on Sunday (five stars) "How refreshing to meet Makepeace Hatfield, who faces a world gone wild with hope, humor, and a scrappy tenacity that manages to find beauty in a ravaged arctic landscape, and hangs on to humanity against all odds."Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness "It's a great pleasure to fall into the pages of a natural-born storyteller. If you're looking for an unforgettable character, your search ends here."Russell Hoban, author of Riddley Walker "Imaginative and extremely well written."Kate Saunders, The Times (London) "An atmospheric tale of a near-future dystopia . . . One for fans of Margaret Atwood."The Evening Standard
"Marcel Theroux delivers a masterly sleight-of-hand . . . and after the third chapter deftly pulls the rug from under the reader's feet. I was completely duped. It is set in a cruel Siberian landscape that is dotted with slave camps and where 'human beings are rat-cunning and will happily kill you twice over for a hot meal.' This is an action-packed, dystopian adventure story with cracking set pieces."Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler
"Theroux's postapocalyptic road novel will inevitably be compared to that other postapocalyptic road novel Oprah liked, and while Theroux (son of Paul) is not the existential stylist McCarthy is, he is a superior plotter. Global warming has decimated civilization, and narrator Makepeace Hatfield is the sole survivor of her Siberian settlement. After coming across another survivor and seeing a plane in the sky, Makepeace heads out to find other settlements. Unfortunately, Horeb, the first settlement she finds, is Hobbesian, and the camp's leader, Reverend Boathwaite, sells her into a slave gang. Marched a thousand miles west to an old gulag, Makepeace spends five years as a slave and eventually escapes after she's dispatched as a slave-guard to a ravaged city now known as the Zone. Teaming up with another escaped slave, the two try to trek back to Makepeace's original home, but tragedy strikes again . . . Theroux succeeds in crafting a wildly eccentric and intelligent page-turner that's ultimately and strangely hopeful."Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Synopsis
2009 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICEOut on the frontier of a failed state, a plane crashes at the edge of an abandoned city. Sheriff Makepeace, the city's last citizen, resolves to go in search of the plane's origins and what is left of a world ravaged by climate change and war. In this startling, post-apocalyptic landscape, Makepeace encounters violent stockaded villages, irradiated cities, and work camps laboring to harness the technologies of a vanished civilization. Far North is "an absorbing end-of-days fable" (GQ), and an adventure through an unforgettable land, in the company of a remarkable hero for our times.
Synopsis
National Book Award Finalist for FictionMy father had an expression for a thing that turned out bad. Hed say it had gone west. But going west always sounded pretty good to me. After all, westwards is the path of the sun. And through as much history as I know of, people have moved west to settle and find freedom. But our world had gone north, truly gone north, and just how far north I was beginning to learn.
Out on the frontier of a failed state, Makepeace—sheriff and perhaps last citizen—patrols a citys ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.
Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee emerges from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.
What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling: stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeaces journey—rife with danger—also leads to an unexpected redemption.
Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanitys origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the worlds fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses.
Synopsis
This National Book Award finalist and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice is an enthralling, poetic adventure set in post-apocalyptic Siberia.
About the Author
Marcel Theroux is the author of A Blow to the Heart, A Stranger in the Earth, and The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: A Paper Chase, which won a Somerset Maugham Award. He lives in London.
Reading Group Guide
1. Given that she barely reads, why does Makepeace make such a point of preserving books for posterity?
2. The author Arthur C. Clarke famously said “ any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. How does this relate to the world of Far North? How much of the technology that you use every day operates on principles that you understand? What are the implications of a society that increasingly depends on incomprehensibly sophisticated forms of technology?
3. Whats the difference between Makepeaces evaluation of herself and the way she comes across to the reader?
4. How does Makepeace feel about herself in relation to her ancestors? Is she right to feel this way?
5. Is Makepeace convincingly female?
6. What is the effect of the author withholding information about Makepeaces gender?
7. Eben Callard mentions something called Daniels Fire. What do you think this is?
8. Why do Makepeaces family leave the U.S.? What is the attraction of a fresh start? What are they fleeing from?
9. To what extent are you persuaded that man-made climate change is a real problem? What evidence would it take to persuade or dissuade you of its importance? Why do you think it inspires such strong views? What position does the author of Far North appear to take?
10. Is this is a despairing book? What consolation does it offer us?
11. Makepeace lives several generations into the future. How does our life look to her? How do the lives of your grandparents and great-grandparents look to you?
12. Its an underlying assumption of modern life that the future will be better than the past. Why is this necessarily the case? Has it always been true?
13. Makepeace feels that Shamsudin represents a different kind of person from her. What is the difference between them as Makepeace perceives it?
14.What does the future hold for Makepeaces daughter?
15. In Chekhovs play, “Three Sisters”, Vershinin says: “It could be that our present life, which seems so normal to us, will in time seem strange, uncomfortable, mindless, unclean, and perhaps even corrupt.” How does this relate to the aims of speculative fiction?
16. Life on earth will end one day. How, if at all, is this fact relevant to the way we live now?