Lauren Beukes’ newest novel Afterland with a worldwide publication date of July 28, and available to South African readers as an e-book since April 6, launches online on April 9, 2020.
Lauren Beukes is the author of the books Maverick: Extraordinary Women from South Africa’s Past (2004), Moxyland (2008), Zoo City (2010), The Shining Girls (2013), Broken Monsters (2014), and Motherland (2019). Some of her comics include The Wonder Woman, All The Survivors Club, The Pretty Ponies, and The Hidden Kingdom. She has won many awards for her writing including the Mbokodo Awards, the Strand Critics Award, and the Arthur C Clarke Award, the biggest award for science fiction in the world, for Zoo City in 2011.
The Cape Town resident introduced readers to her newest offering Afterland on YouTube describing some of the research and other behind the scenes work she did on April 8. Her legwork included a tour through Salt Lake City and Atlanta in the United States as well as back in her home town in South Africa. You can watch video of her describing her process below.
The new addition to African and world literature has the following blurb;
Blade Runner meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this thrilling story of how far a mother will go to protect her son in a hostile world transformed by the sudden absence of men.
Cole and her twelve-year-old, Miles, are on the lam. Fleeing across the American West, they’re desperate to find a safe haven. Until they do, they must maintain their disguise–as mother and daughter. Because Miles, a boy, is the most valuable commodity in the world.
Within just a few, horrifying years, ninety-nine percent of the global male population has died in a pandemic. Now, women run everything, from neighbourhood bars to police departments to research programs searching for a way to keep the human race going.
Stealthily and swiftly carving a trail from luxury bunker to anarchist commune to nomadic religious cult, Miles and Cole will need all their cunning, planning, and luck to outmanoeuvre the very bad, very dangerous people who are hot on their heels-among them, Cole’s own sister.
A brilliant blend of psychological suspense, American noir, and trenchant science-fiction, Afterland is the high-concept feminist thriller that Lauren Beukes’ fans have been waiting for.
On April, 6, the book was made available, exclusively to South African readers, as an e-book on Amazon, Google, Snapplify, and Kobo with details from Penguin South Africa. Below are details on how our friends from Mzansi can get their copies.
The eBook will be available on all sites soon – we’re just waiting for it to pull through. For now, the ebook is available here:
Amazon: https://t.co/CFuxnCrucO
Google: https://t.co/tn3qUGFRiW
Snapplify: https://t.co/9d6bPblx1a
Kobo: https://t.co/cIE1CC6Q4i— @PenguinBooksSA (@PenguinBooksSA) April 6, 2020
On April 9, you can see the South African launch of the book on Facebook Live, this is how life is now folks, at 6pm SA time (4pm GMT) alongside Mohale Mashigo.
‘Lauren Beukes is a major, major talent.’ – George RR Martin
Join @readinglist_ and Penguin Random House for the Facebook Live launch of @laurenbeukes‘ new novel, Afterland.
The event will be streamed LIVE here this Thursday: https://t.co/f6nUaS1vVB#afterland #laurenbeukes pic.twitter.com/wHJPx2Hrtl
— @PenguinBooksSA (@PenguinBooksSA) April 6, 2020
For the rest of us non-South Africans, you can get advance copies of the book at her publishers Mulholland here. That link allows you to take part in the “Shelf Awareness Sweepstakes” and get a chance to win one of twenty five copies being offered to her most loyal fans until April 12. (I’ve already made my entry hehe)
You can also listen to our podcast with the South African below.
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