A classic 1960s novel of J.G. Ballard-ian strangeness, from one of Britain's most haunting and unforgettable voices
The world is threatened by encroaching ice, creeping down day by day from the polar ice caps. The imminent catastrophe has thrown the world's governments into chaos, and no one knows whether the disaster has an environmental or nuclear cause, or how soon the end will come. One man pursues his sylph-like, silver-haired ex-fiancee ('the girl') as she flees from country to country, away from her husband; away from the malevolent 'warden' of one of the proto-territories that have sprung up as traditional societies crumble; away from him.
A classic 1960s novel of J.G. Ballard-ian strangeness, from one of Britain's most haunting and unforgettable voices
The world is threatened by encroaching ice, creeping down day by day from the polar ice caps. The imminent catastrophe has thrown the world's governments into chaos, and no one knows whether the disaster has an environmental or nuclear cause, or how soon the end will come. One man pursues his sylph-like, silver-haired ex-fiancee ('the girl') as she flees from country to country, away from her husband; away from the malevolent 'warden' of one of the proto-territories that have sprung up as traditional societies crumble; away from him.
A classic 1960s novel of J.G. Ballard-ian strangeness, from one of Britain's most haunting and unforgettable voices.
Anna Kavan was born in 1901, the only child of a wealthy British family. She began publishing under her married name, Helen Ferguson. During this time, she was introduced to heroin by her tennis coach in order to improve her game. She suffered a breakdown after the end of her second marriage, and was committed to an institution to treat both her depression and her addiction. She published her two best-known novels after this experience, Asylum Piece and Ice, under 'Anna Kavan', the name of a character in an earlier novel. She died of heart failure at her home in London in 1968.
Astonishes with poetic brilliance
*Sunday Telegraph*
There is nothing else like it... This ice is not psychological or
metaphysical ice; here the loneliness of childhood has been
magicked into a physical reality as hallucinatory as the Ancient
Mariner's.
*Doris Lessing*
One of the most mysterious of modern writers, Anna Kavan created a
uniquely fascinating fictional world. Few contemporary novelists
could match the intensity of her vision
*J. G. Ballard*
One of the most terrifying postulations about the end of the
world.. One can only admire the strength and courage of this
visionary
*The Times*
Brutal, addictive and extremely entertaining... strange, unsettling
and harsh
*Guardian*
Serious, evocative and surprising, unique in its obsessive images
of encroachment
*Christopher Priest*
Now, I can tell you about some women writers who truly are
fantastic. One is Anna Kavan...she just keeps extending herself,
keeps telescoping language and plot.
*Penthouse*
Ice is superbly unsettling... this novel is perfect winter
reading.
*The Times*
Just the most magnificent book...hugely enigmatic, a genuine novel
of the unconscious and a masterpiece. I feel very passionate about
it, as you can probably tell.
*The Guardian*
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