If you liked Ian McEwan's Solar
...why not try these two novels, both of which take unusual stances on environmental issues...
Rainforest by Jenny Diski
While Jenny Diski’s arachnophobia prevented her from researching this particular book in the depths of the Borneo rainforest in which it is set, she based much of it on ‘three visits to Kew Gardens and textbooks’. In it, Mo Singleton is a biology lecturer on a research trip as she tries to educate humankind on their impact on the rainforest. But as she observes the uphill struggle she has to cope with the people who mistreat her and the planet – not least the alluring Joe Yates, hired to replace her during her absence – her breakdown becomes increasingly likely.
The Rapture by Liz Jensen
Liz Jensen’s new novel takes a dark look at the extremes of man’s self-destruction. In a merciless summer of biblical heat and destructive winds, Gabrielle Fox's main concern is a personal one: to rebuild her career as a psychologist after a shattering car accident. But when she is assigned Bethany Krall, one of the most dangerous teenagers in the country, she begins to fear she has made a terrible mistake. Raised on a diet of evangelistic hellfire, Bethany is violent, delusional, cruelly intuitive and insistent that she can foresee natural disasters - a claim which Gabrielle interprets as a symptom of doomsday delusion. But when catastrophes begin to occur on the very dates Bethany has predicted, and a brilliant, gentle physicist enters the equation, the apocalyptic puzzle intensifies and the stakes multiply. Is the self-proclaimed Nostradamus of the psych ward the ultimate manipulator, or could she be the harbinger of imminent global cataclysm on a scale never seen before? And what can love mean in 'interesting times'? A haunting story of human passion and burning faith set against an adventure of tectonic proportions, The Rapture is an electrifying psychological thriller that explores the dark extremes of mankind's self-destruction in a world on the brink.
