Lauren Beukes author interview for Penguin 2020

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Meet the author: Lauren Beukes

Afterland

THE INTELLIGENT NEW POST-APOCALYPTIC THRILLER FROM THE AUTHOR BEHIND BRAND NEW APPLE TV HIT SHINING GIRLS 
 
'A smartly written thriller that opens with a satisfying bang . . . splendid' STEPHEN KING 
'Powerful and intelligent' GUARDIAN 
'A major, major talent' GEORGE R.R. MARTIN 
_______ 
 
A WORLD OF WOMEN 
A MOTHER AND SON ON THE RUN 
 
Three years after a virus wiped out most men on earth, Cole's son, Miles, is one of the rare survivors. 
 
Yet in this changed world, there are women who would kill to get their hands on that most prized commodity - a living boy. 
 
Getting Miles to safety means crossing America with deadly pursuers hot on their heels - including Cole's own sister, Billie. 
 
But if there are some who will commit any crime to possess Miles, Cole must face some terrible choices to protect her son . . . 
_______ 
 
The powerful and intelligent new thriller from the author of Richard and Judy bestseller The Shining Girls and the prize-winning Zoo City 
 
Included in 'Best Books of Summer 2020' in Elle, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly and Oprah Magazine 
_______ 
 
'Bowstring-taut, visceral, and incredibly timely: Beukes's plague-tale is a parable about the glory and terror of Americanism in times of calamity' Cory Doctorow 
 
'A fast-moving thriller [that] splices gut-punching action sequences and feminist gender politics with an impressively light touch. Bubbles with big ideas. This intelligent speculative novel about a pandemic feels alarmingly close to home' Metro 
 
'Afterland is that rare creature, a ripping tale that neither shies away from big questions nor interesting answers' New Scientist 
 
 'Lauren Beukes is a writer with a startling imagination, and a masterful ability to rewrite the rules of whatever genre she turns to' Ben Winters, author of Underground Airlines and Golden State

A smartly written thriller that opens with a satisfying bang . . . splendid

Powerful and intelligent, with some unexpectedly trenchant humour, this welcome addition to the no-longer-so-speculative pandemic subgenre has plenty to say about grief, love, family ties and gender roles

Bowstring-taut, visceral, and incredibly timely: Beukes's plague-tale is a parable about the glory and terror of Americanism in times of calamity

Cory Doctorow, author of Walkaway and Little Brother

Lauren Beukes is a writer with a startling imagination, and a masterful ability to rewrite the rules of whatever genre she turns to; and now, right on time, she has turned to dystopian plague

Ben Winters, author of Underground Airlines and Golden State

Five years in writing, this intelligent speculative novel about a pandemic feels alarmingly close to home

You can't imagine how quickly the world can change in six months - there probably isn't a more resonant sentence to be found in any other novel published this year. A fast-moving thriller [that] splices gut-punching action sequences and feminist gender politics with an impressively light touch. Bubbles with big ideas. This intelligent speculative novel about a pandemic feels alarmingly close to home

Afterland is that rare creature, a ripping tale that neither shies away from big questions nor interesting answers

Teases out the deep familial currents that run through its relationships, explores gender and reminds us that dystopian fiction can be seriously grown-up entertainment

Afterland could not be more timely or terrifying . . . An excellent example of the prophetic nature of speculative fiction. Lauren Beukes is one of the most innovative and provocative writers on the contemporary scene

Brilliant ... engrossing ... I will be looking forward to whatever Lauren Beukes does next. She's a major, major talent

George RR Martin, internationally bestselling author of

Scary as hell and hypnotic. I couldn't put it down

Gillian Flynn, number one bestselling author of

Utterly original, beautifully written, and I must say, it creeped the holy bejasus out of me. This is something special

Masterful. Lauren Beukes is very *very* good

A new kind of thriller. A dark, relentless, time-twisting, page-turning. It shines

All Cole has left in the world is her boy, Miles. 
 
With men now a prized commodity, keeping him safe means breaking hastily written new rules - and leaving her own sister for dead. 
 
All Miles has left in the world is his mother. 
 
But is one person enough to save him from the many who would kill to get their hands on a living boy? 
 
Together, Cole and Miles embark on a journey across a changed, hostile country, towards a freedom they may never reach. And when Cole's sister tracks them down, they'll need to decide who to trust - and what loyalty really means in this unimaginable new world.

The gripping novel from the author of Apple TV’s Shining Girls

Zoo City

The gripping and original WINNER of the 2011 Arthur C Clarke award

FROM THE AUTHOR BEHIND BRAND NEW APPLE TV HIT SHINING GIRLS 
 
WINNER OF THE 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD 
 
'A major, major talent' GEORGE R.R. MARTIN 
_______ 
 
Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheque, she's forced to take on her least favourite kind of job - missing persons. 
 
Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions reside. 
 
Instead it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she'll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives - including her own. 
_______ 
 
'Beukes is very *very* good. It feels effortless, utterly accomplished' William Gibson 
 
'Beukes brings a secret tenderness and humanity to her off-kilter portrait of the here and now' Guardian 
 
'Exquisitely paced and impeccably controlled. An enormously satisfying novel' New York Times Book Review

[Beukes] brings a secret tenderness and humanity to her off-kilter portrait of the here and now

Lauren Beukes is very, *very* good. It feels effortless. Utterly accomplished

A fabulous outing from an extremely promising writer ... [It] has so much fabulous wordplay, imaginative settings and scenarios, and such a dark and cynical heart that I was totally riveted by it

Beukes's energetic noir phantasmagoria ... crackles with original ideas ... Beukes skilfully employs all the twists of first-rate noir ... powerful indeed

Beukes delivers a thrill ride that gleefully merges narrative styles and tropes, almost single-handedly pulling the "urban fantasy" subgenre back towards its groundbreaking roots

Energetic and imaginative ... Packed with colour, dark humour and thought-provoking ideas, Zoo City is an absolute must for anyone with a taste for the wilder edges of the genre

An unpredictable and helluva awesome read

Lauren Beukes is Jeff Noon crossed with Raymond Chandler. I loved it, it's going to be huge

I couldn't put this down. It's weird, thrilling, funny... filled with sleazy characters and lots of bad attitude

An unfamiliar land full of familiars, a broken Johannesburg peopled with damaged wonders... If our words are bullets, Lauren Beukes is a marksman in a world of drunken machine-gunners

Zoo City is pure originality ... a book that had me reading it revelling in Beukes' magical way with words

At times the witty and lyrical prose is sheer magic, the story captivating and the characters exotic, cruel and beautiful while the backdrop of Johannesburg seethes with hidden, lurking dangers around every corner, Zoo City is quite simply captivating

Zinzi December has a talent for finding lost people. Even when they don't want to be found. And when she is hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find pop starlet Songweza, she hopes it will be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions live in the shadow of hell's undertow. 
 
Instead, it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she'll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives - including her own.

Moxyland

A gripping and thrilling novel from the winner of the Arthur C Clarke award

FROM THE AUTHOR BEHIND BRAND NEW APPLE TV HIT SHINING GIRLS 
 
In a troubling, near-future Cape Town four broken people try to carve out a place for themselves before a brutal storm of change hits them . . . 
 
'Beukes deals with slightly surreal things in very real ways. I'm all over it' GILLIAN FLYNN 
_______ 
 
Kendra, an art-school dropout, brands herself for a nanotech marketing program. Lerato, an ambitious AIDS baby, plots to defect from her corporate employers. Tendeka, a hot-headed activist, is becoming increasingly rabid. Toby, a roguish blogger, discovers that the video games he plays for cash are much more than they seem. 
 
Four hurt and damaged individuals trying to make lives for themselves in a broken, uncertain future. But as events send them on a collision course their worlds are about to change in unexpected - and explosive - ways. 
_______ 
 
'You don't have to be an SF aficionado to love this novel that is fast, brimming with original ideas' Guardian 
 
'A major, major talent' George R. R. Martin

A technicolour jazzy rollercoaster ride into a dazzling hell ...Like A Clockwork Orange, this book has the makings of a cult success

A great read, fast-paced, witty, sussed and sexy. It snaps and pops with neologisms and geek-speak, and fizzes and buzzes with gadgetry and techno-toys.

Michiel Heyns, The Sunday Independent

The larval form of a new kind of SF munching its way out of the intestines of the wasp-paralysed caterpillar of cyberpunk

Beukes has created an imaginary world that captures the social realities of our time. As entertaining as MOXYLAND is, it is also profound and, dare I say, important ...

J Robert King, author of Angel of Death

Lean, sharp, and tightly written, MOXYLAND keeps raising the stakes, from the opening chapter to the uncompromising finale. And with its electronic panopticon, it gives us a dystopia to rival 1984 or Stand On Zanzibar - a future horrifying for its very plausibility

Beukes deals with slightly surreal things in very real ways. I'm all over it

You don't have to be an SF aficionado to love this novel that is fast, brimming with original ideas and deadly serious

Moulds language to its own purpose so shockingly, is so gripping and so disturbing, that it will become, in time, a classic ... Sassy, bold, inventive, believable, deeply engaging and overtly, sublimely political, MOXYLAND will draw to itself a wide and appreciative audience

Beukes's stunningly original sci-fi thriller chills and thrills to the last breath

The world Beukes has invented is both eerily familiar and creepily different

If you're a fan of any kind of science fiction, you'll find something in MOXYLAND to delight you

This fast-paced sci-fi trip has intriguing characters, big ideas, a new lexicon and ... serves as a global warning

Beukes delivers a thrill ride that gleefully merges narrative styles and tropes, almost single-handedly pulling the 'urban fantasy' sub-genre back towards its ground breakingroots

George Orwell's 1984 meets Bladerunner. Lauren Beukes breaks new literary ground with effortless hipness

Moxyland does lots of things, masterfully, that lots of SF never even guesses that it could be doing

In the near future, Kendra, an art-school dropout, Lerato, an ambitious AIDS baby, Tendek, a hot-headed activist, and Toby, a roguish blogger, live in a world where your online identity is at least as important as your physical one. Getting disconnected is a punishment worse than imprisonment.  But someone's got to stand up to government inc., whatever the cost.

Lauren Beukes

The dazzling new novel from the author of Apple TV’s Shining Girls

Bridge lost her neuroscientist mother Jo to brain cancer. When she is picking through the remains of Jo's life and career, she finds it. Jo called it the dreamworm: a gateway to other worlds, other lives. Or so she believed. Bridge is desperate to see her mother again. Will do anything, risk anything, including using the dreamworm. But there are others who believe in it too. Some want to possess it for themselves. While a few know it's their duty to destroy anyone it touches. Bridge? She just wants to find her mother . . .

Lauren Beukes

Bridge

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