Synopsis
For over a decade, novelist and cultural critic James Howard Kunstler has been sounding the warning bells against the direction our resource-guzzling globalized world is heading. His 2005 nonfiction work, THE LONG EMERGENCY, presented a powerful argument that our civilization's dependence on oil is fundamentally untenable, and that we're all headed for a bleak future. In his captivating and disturbing novel, WORLD MADE BY HAND, he imagines life in that future: a place where planes and cars are useless trash, and the population has been ravaged by global warming and deadly pandemics. In a small town in upstate New York, former software executive Robert Earle has been reluctantly elected mayor, and must contend with religious cults, a gang of NASCAR fanatics, and a miscreant thug who is holding six townspeople hostage. WORLD MADE BY HAND conjures a dark but utterly believable vision of the near future, and skillfully blends sci-fi adventure with profound contemplation on the fate of humanity, and how we can save ourselves from our own folly.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2009-01-06 | | Edition Description: | Reprint |
| Size | | Length: | 336 pages | | Height: | 8.3 in | | Width: | 5.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 10.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
In the wake of a series of global catastrophes that have destroyed industrial civilization, the inhabitants of Union Grove, a small New York town, do anything they can to get by, as they struggle to deal with a new way of life over the course of an eventful summer, in a novel set several decades in the future. By the author of The Long Emergency. Reprint.
Industry Reviews
"WORLD MADE BY HAND is far from a typical post-apocalyptic novel. It caters neither to a pseudo-morbid nor faddishly slick vision of the future. Though grim with portent, it is ultimately, as Camus' novel THE PLAGUE, an impassioned and invigorating tale whose ultimate message is one of hope, not despair."
(05/06/2008)
"As a budding urban homesteader, I found the way of life in World Made By Hand, fascinating. No one can predict the future, and I doubt our future will be much like the one depicted here, but I think its possible that Kunstler has come closer to showing us what's in store than anyone else."
(10/06/2008)
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