A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK ¡ A PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER BEST OF THE YEAR
âWoven together out of the strands of myth, science fiction, and ecological warning, Matt Bellâs Appleseed is as urgent as it is audacious.â âKelly Link, Pulitzer Prize finalist and national bestselling author of Get in Trouble
A âbreathtaking novel of ideas unlike anything youâve ever readâ (Esquire) from Young Lions Fiction Awardâfinalist Matt Bell, a breakout book that explores climate change, manifest destiny, humanityâs unchecked exploitation of natural resources, and the small but powerful magic contained within every single apple.
In eighteenth-century Ohio, two brothers travel into the wooded frontier, planting apple orchards from which they plan to profit in the years to come. As they remake the wilderness in their own image, planning for a future of settlement and civilization, the long-held bonds and secrets between the two will be tested, fractured and brokenâand possibly healed.
Fifty years from now, in the second half of the twenty-first century, climate change has ravaged the Earth. Having invested early in genetic engineering and food science, one company now owns all the worldâs resources. But a growing resistance is working to redistribute both land and powerâand in a pivotal moment for the future of humanity, one of the companyâs original founders will return to headquarters, intending to destroy what he helped build.
A thousand years in the future, North America is covered by a massive sheet of ice. One lonely sentient being inhabits a tech station on top of the glacierâand in a daring and seemingly impossible quest, sets out to follow a homing beacon across the continent in the hopes of discovering the last remnant of civilization.
Hugely ambitious in scope and theme, Appleseed is the breakout novel from a writer âas self-assured as he is audaciousâ (NPR) who âmay well have invented the pulse-pounding novel of ideasâ (Jess Walter). Part speculative epic, part tech thriller, part reinvented fairy tale, Appleseed is an unforgettable meditation on climate change; corporate, civic, and familial responsibility; manifest destiny; and the myths and legends that sustain us all.