Description: Phase Six by Jim Shepard A spare and gripping novel about a disastrous pandemic-completed by the award-winning Jim Shepard before COVID-19 even emerged-that reads like a fictional sequel to our current crisis. FORMAT Paperback CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description "Jim Shepard is a fiction writer of peculiar but tantalizing gifts." The New York TimesIn a tiny settlement on the west coast of Greenland, 11-year-old Aleq and his best friend, frequent trespassers at a mining site exposed to mountains of long-buried and thawing permafrost, carry what they pick up back into their village, and from there Shepards harrowing and deeply moving story follows Aleq, one of the few survivors of the initial outbreak, through his identification and radical isolation as the likely index patient. While he shoulders both a crushing guilt for what he may have done and the hopes of a world looking for answers, we also meet two Epidemic Intelligence Service investigators dispatched from the CDC--Jeannine, an epidemiologist and daughter of Algerian immigrants, and Danice, an MD and lab wonk. As they attempt to head off the cataclysm, Jeannine--moving from the Greenland hospital overwhelmed with the first patients to a Level 4 high-security facility in the Rocky Mountains--does what she can to sustain Aleq.Both a chamber piece of multiple intimate perspectives and a more omniscient glimpse into the megastructures (political, cultural, and biological) that inform such a disaster, the novel reminds us of the crucial bonds that form in the midst of catastrophe, as a child and several hyper-educated adults learn what it means to provide adequate support for those they love. In the process, they celebrate the precious worlds they might lose, and help to shape others that may survive. Author Biography Jim Shepard is the author of four previous collections, including Like Youd Understand, Anyway, which won The Story Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, and his short fiction has often been selected for Best American Short Stories and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. The most recent of his seven novels, The Book of Aron, won the PEN/New England Award, the Sophie Brody Medal for achievement in Jewish literature, the Harold U. Ribalow Book Prize for Jewish literature, and the Clark Fiction Prize. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts with his wife, the writer Karen Shepard, his three children and three beagles, and he teaches at Williams College. Review Jim Shepard is a fiction writer of peculiar but tantalizing gifts. * The New York Times *If youve been waiting for the great novel of the COVID-19 era, its in your hands. I read Phase Six with a galloping heart. With heroic humor and a poets ear and eye for what makes humanity worth saving, Shepards polyphonic novel of contagion and collapse is also the story of loves unlikely survival in the most hostile conditions -- Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!Jim Shepard not only writes at the cutting edge of literature, but he IS the cutting edge of literature. He excavates the twin crises of our era-climate change and pathogens-and builds a story that is as poignant as it is true. The writing is stunning. The research is stunning. The after-effect is stunning. Phase Six is a great book for our times: the past, the present and those that-we hope-are yet to come. -- Colum McCann, author of ApeirogonNo amount of prior admiration for Jim Shepards fiction prepared me for the magnificent Phase Six-a book at once so wise and so funny, so bleak and so tender. With astonishing virtuosity, he conveys huge amounts of information in a way that is not only lucid but utterly gripping, and he creates characters who make me want to rush into the novel to save them from the virus and themselves. What a triumph! -- Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the FieldImagining catastrophe is, now more than ever, an essential task, and no one does it better than Jim Shepard. At once scary and timely, funny and absorbing, Phase Six is a must-read. -- Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White SkyPaced like a prophetic thriller . . . Shepard has frequently employed research as a foundation for his literary creations, but never before in such pulse-racing fashion . . . Readers will find themselves in territory that feels eerily familiar-panic, politics, uncertainty, fear, a resistance to quarantine, an overload of media noise-as Shepards command of tone never lets the tension ease . . . All the narrative propulsion of escapist fiction without the escape. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *Phase Six is a fast-paced, suspenseful story about what happens when a different microbe is unleashed on the world . . . [A]n ode to family, friends, lovers, hard work and the beautiful, heartbreaking innocence of childhood * Daily Mail *Thrilling . . . a very human story, full of emotion and inevitable sorrow and pain. * Irish Indepedent * Long Description "Jim Shepard is a fiction writer of peculiar but tantalizing gifts." The New York Times In a tiny settlement on the west coast of Greenland, 11-year-old Aleq and his best friend, frequent trespassers at a mining site exposed to mountains of long-buried and thawing permafrost, carry what they pick up back into their village, and from there Shepards harrowing and deeply moving story follows Aleq, one of the few survivors of the initial outbreak, through his identification and radical isolation as the likely index patient. While he shoulders both a crushing guilt for what he may have done and the hopes of a world looking for answers, we also meet two Epidemic Intelligence Service investigators dispatched from the CDC--Jeannine, an epidemiologist and daughter of Algerian immigrants, and Danice, an MD and lab wonk. As they attempt to head off the cataclysm, Jeannine--moving from the Greenland hospital overwhelmed with the first patients to a Level 4 high-security facility in the Rocky Mountains--does what she can to sustain Aleq. Both a chamber piece of multiple intimate perspectives and a more omniscient glimpse into the megastructures (political, cultural, and biological) that inform such a disaster, the novel reminds us of the crucial bonds that form in the midst of catastrophe, as a child and several hyper-educated adults learn what it means to provide adequate support for those they love. In the process, they celebrate the precious worlds they might lose, and help to shape others that may survive. Review Quote Jim Shepard is a fiction writer of peculiar but tantalizing gifts. - The New York Times Promotional "Headline" A spare and gripping novel about a disastrous pandemic-completed by the award-winning Jim Shepard before COVID-19 even emerged-that reads like a fictional sequel to our current crisis. Details ISBN1529415098 Author Jim Shepard Pages 256 Publisher Quercus Publishing Year 2022 ISBN-10 1529415098 ISBN-13 9781529415094 Publication Date 2022-05-17 UK Release Date 2022-05-17 Format Paperback Imprint riverrun Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom DEWEY 813.6 Audience General AU Release Date 2022-10-10 NZ Release Date 2022-10-10 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:135232561;
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Book Title: Phase Six
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