author results for Wharton, Thomas

The Book of Rain

Wharton, Thomas — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT

A groundbreaking, deeply affecting work of environmental literary suspense for fans of Cloud Atlas, The Overstory, and Station Eleven.
The northern mining town of River Meadows is one of three hotspots in the world producing ghost ore, a new source of energy worth twenty-eight times its weight in gold. It's also linked with slippages of time and space that gradually render the area uninhabitable. After the town is evacuated, the whole region is cordoned off, the new no-go zone wryly nicknamed "the Park."
Three intertwined stories flow from the disaster of River Meadows. Alex Hewitt and his sister, Amery, were among the first to be shipped out of the contaminated town. Now an accomplished game designer, Alex has moved on, but his sister has not, making increasingly dangerous break-ins to save animals trapped in the toxic wasteland. When at last she fails to return from a trip inside the fence, Alex flies to River Meadows to search for her, enlisting her friend, Michio Amano, a mathematician who needs to transcend the known laws of physics if he and Alex are to succeed.
Claire Foley ran away from River Meadows as a teenager and now traffics in endangered wildlife. As Alex and Michio search for Amery, Claire arrives in an island nation under threat of environmental catastrophe to retrieve her greatest prize yet, only to find herself facing a life-altering choice.
And, finally, in a future as distant as myth, a flock of birds sets out on a dangerous journey to prevent the extinction of their ancient enemy, humanity. The account they hand down is an Epic of Gilgamesh for our times, illuminating the wisdom of nature and our flawed stewardship of the planet.
As sweeping in scope as a world of its own, The Book of Rain is a novel of epic reach, beautifully multi-layered, haunting and profound.

Wolf, Moon, Dog

Wharton, Thomas — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

In a hard and hungry season thousands of years ago, a young wolf is turfed out of his pack and left to fend for himself among strange, clever new animals who walk on two legs, hunt with detachable claws and teeth, eat meat but wastefully discard the bones and tend fire as part of their pack. Eventually, one of these young animals carefully approaches Wolf. He explains that he's a human, and that his kind and Wolf's kind aren't so different: they hunt the same prey, they're hunted by the same predators and they need help surviving. The boy proposes a deal: Wolf will stand watch at night and alert the humans if danger approaches, and in exchange the humans will reward him with one meaty bone a day. Wolf agrees to the arrangement on a trial basis and over time grows closer to the boy, giving into an inexplicable urge to seek companionship with humans. And so, Wolf becomes dog. In Wolf, Moon, Dog the author of The Book of Rain follows Wolf as he reincarnates through the ages, from Ancient Egypt to Alexandrian Greece to the Space Race and all the way to a dark future beset by climate change. Indeed, Wolf dies many times over, but each of his lives is uniquely meaningful, unleashing different aspects of humankind's best friend. In Wharton's novel and fable, dogs are deeply empathetic creatures who experience a breadth of emotions and a desire for self-determination much the way we do, and who, also like us, struggle to reconcile conflicting instincts. Dancing across genres and cultures, space and time, Wolf, Moon, Dog is as insightful about human nature as it is about canine behaviour, sure to delight dog lovers and show even readers immune to a dog's charm how much there is to learn from our canine counterparts.

The Book of Rain

Wharton, Thomas — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT

The Book of Rain

Wharton, Thomas — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT

The northern mining town of River Meadows is one of three hotspots in the world producing ghost ore, a new source of energy worth twenty-eight times its weight in gold. It's also linked with slippages of time and space that gradually render the area uninhabitable. After the town is evacuated, the whole region is cordoned off, the new no-go zone wryly nicknamed "the Park." Three intertwined stories flow from the disaster of River Meadows. Alex Hewitt and his sister, Amery, were among the first to be shipped out of the contaminated town. Now an accomplished game designer, Alex has moved on, but his sister has not, making increasingly dangerous break-ins to save animals trapped in the toxic wasteland. When at last she fails to return from a trip inside the fence, Alex flies to River Meadows to search for her, enlisting her friend, Michio Amano, a mathematician who needs to transcend the known laws of physics if he and Alex are to succeed. Claire Foley ran away from River Meadows as a teenager and now traffics in endangered wildlife. As Alex and Michio search for Amery, Claire arrives in an island nation under threat of environmental catastrophe to retrieve her greatest prize yet, only to find herself facing a life-altering choice. And, finally, in a future as distant as myth, a flock of birds sets out on a dangerous journey to prevent the extinction of their ancient enemy, humanity. The account they hand down is an Epic of Gilgamesh for our times, illuminating the wisdom of nature and our flawed stewardship of the planet.

Wolf, Moon, Dog

Wharton, Thomas — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A witty, charming and heartfelt novel from acclaimed author Thomas Wharton about the many fabled lives of a dog named Wolf—hunter, guardian, guide, healer, friend.
In a hard and hungry season thousands of years ago, a young wolf is turfed out of his pack and left to fend for himself among strange, clever new animals who walk on two legs, hunt with detachable claws and teeth, eat meat but wastefully discard the bones and tend fire as part of their pack.
Eventually, one of these young animals carefully approaches Wolf. He explains that he’s a human, and that his kind and Wolf’s kind aren’t so different: they hunt the same prey, they're hunted by the same predators and they need help surviving. The boy proposes a deal: Wolf will stand watch at night and alert the humans if danger approaches, and in exchange the humans will reward him with one meaty bone a day. Wolf agrees to the arrangement on a trial basis and over time grows closer to the boy, giving into an inexplicable urge to seek companionship with humans. And so, Wolf becomes dog.
In Wolf, Moon, Dog the award-winning author of The Book of Rain follows Wolf as he reincarnates through the ages, from Ancient Egypt to Alexandrian Greece to the Space Race and all the way to a dark future beset by climate change. Indeed, Wolf dies many times over, but each of his lives is uniquely meaningful, unleashing different aspects of humankind’s best friend. In Wharton's novel and fable, dogs are deeply empathetic creatures who experience a breadth of emotions and a desire for self-determination much the way we do, and who, also like us, struggle to reconcile conflicting instincts.
Dancing across genres and cultures, space and time, Wolf, Moon, Dog is as insightful about human nature as it is about canine behaviour, sure to delight dog lovers and show even readers immune to a dog's charm how much there is to learn from our canine counterparts.

Wolf, Moon, Dog

Wharton, Thomas — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Salamander

Wharton, Thomas — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Spellbinding, original, Salamander careens through a world of ideas and stories in which the transforming power of books, the thirst for knowledge, and the pursuit of immortality become erotic. It is also a universal story of love and obsession.
Set in the eighteenth century, the narrative revolves around a world-spanning quest for the infinite book. Along the way the novel gathers stories that range from a Chinese tale of jealousy and lost love to the remarkable history of Alexandria’s other great library and to epoch-making moments on the battlefields of colonial America. At the centre of the novel’s unforgettable cast of characters is the London printer Nicholas Flood, a dedicated craftsman who is unprepared for all that awaits him when he accepts an unusual commission. Intricate, humane, infused with humour and pathos, Salamander is an exhilarating, elegantly crafted novel.

Icefields

Wharton, Thomas — Tue, 31 Jan 1995 00:00:00 GMT

On an expedition in the Canadian Rockies at the end of the nineteenth century, Dr Edward Byrne slips and falls almost 60 feet into a crevasse on the Arcturus Glacier. While trapped, hanging upside down and wary that the slightest movement could send him plunging deeper into the abyss, Byrne notices a mysterious winged figure embedded in the ice wall. The vision shakes his sanity, and after his recovery continues to haunt him until he abandons his fiancee and his medical practice in England and returns to a lonely vigil in a shack near the spot on the ice where he almost lost his life. His spirit trapped, he seeks the truth by questioning closely the strange characters that cross his path and meticulously recording the advance and decline of the myths and legends of an early settlement and is transformed by the coming of the railroad into a thriving tourist centre - with an impact as far away as the battlefields for the First World War.