I’m delighted that Popsugar included Afterland on their round-up of 35 must-read books by women published in 2020Afterland is in the incredible company of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh, Elisabeth Thomas’s Catherine House, and N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became, which has been my favourite book this year so far!

Sabienna Bowman writes:

Given the eerily prescient plot of Lauren Beukes’s Afterland, some readers may be put off by the idea of delving into a novel about a pandemic. But that would be a mistake since the novel in question promises to combine pop culture references with the unerring love of a mother protecting her son. Set in the aftermath of a pandemic that decimated the male population, Cole is on the run with her 12-year-old son — one of the last males on the planet, making him prime for exploitation by a number of groups with their own agendas.

Shoutout to @runoutofpages for the amazing photo.