I’m thrilled that Esquire included Afterland in this round-up of 20 best summer 2020 reads, in the fabulous company of Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh, Gene Wolfe’s Interlibrary Loan, and I Hold a Wolf by the Ears by Laura Van Den Berg, among others.
Adrienne Westenfeld writes:
If you’re into pandemic literature, even after what we’ve experienced, read Afterland, a gripping work of speculative fiction about a ravaged world forever changed by The Manfall, a global epidemic that wipes out nearly all men. Cole is a young mother on the run with her twelve-year-old son, one of the last remaining boys in the world, whom she seeks to protect at any cost from sex traffickers who would exploit him as a reproductive resource. In today’s world, Beukes’ feminist dystopia of contagion, police brutality, and religious extremism hits frighteningly close to home.
Credit to my friend @granthinds for this radiant photo of the South African edition of Afterland.