A visionary novel from Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

It is sooner than you might think. And the Earth's climate is much changed - it's colder than ever before in the north, and unbearably dry and hot in the south. Mara, who is seven, and her four-year-old brother Dann find themselves somewhere very strange, not home ...

They are taken in by a kindly, grandmotherly woman, but this new life is hard: hunger, dirt, thirst and danger are the children's constant companions. Drought and fire carry off their adoptive home and force them to set off northward into the unknown, to experience a series of adventures that bring them to an altogether altered world, where they can start to learn and build anew.

Doris Lessing has written a compelling, troubling and entertaining novel that, through the remarkable odyssey of a brother and sister living in the imagined future, manages to tell us a great deal about the present we perceive only dimly and scarcely know how to value.

About the Author

Doris Lessing is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. Her first novel, 'The Grass is Singing', was published in 1950. Among her other celebrated novels are 'The Golden Notebook', 'The Fifth Child' and 'Memoirs of a Survivor'. She has also published two volumes of her autobiography, 'Under my Skin' and 'Walking in the Shade'. Doris Lessing died on 17 November 2013 at the age of 94.

Reviews

'I hope everyone reads Mara and Dann and it wins all the prizes.' Victoria Glendinning, Literary Review

'An outstanding piece of storytelling... rich and imaginative.'
Helen Dunmore, Daily Mail

'Fascinating and profoundly curious.' Rachel Cusk, Daily Express

Book Information
ISBN 9780006550839
Author Doris Lessing
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint Flamingo
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 282g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 24mm