Six Booker Prize-nominated post-apocalyptic books
From viral pandemics to extinction-level events, these searing novels set in the wake of an apocalypse make the essential end-of-world reading list
Eight Booker Prize-nominated books for World Environment Day
To mark World Environment Day, we’ve scoured the Booker Library to find some of the best books that celebrate the natural world and highlight our need to protect it
In recent years, eco-fiction or cli-fi (climate fiction) has emerged as a distinctive genre, a space where many authors – some of whom have been nominated for our prizes – are addressing some of the world’s most crucial environmental issues, from deforestation to rising tides and air pollution. According to the Telegraph, publishers are noting an increase in climate-centred manuscripts being submitted, reflecting the ‘pressing concerns’ of our society.
World Environment Day (5 June), established by the United Nations in 1973, is a global initiative that encourages awareness and action for environmental protection. This year’s theme revolves around land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience. According to the UN, up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded and, without urgent action, droughts may affect over three quarters of the world’s population by 2050.
Here, we’ve compiled a list of Booker Prize-nominated books that incorporate environmental issues, whether as a focal point or an underlying concern. While these books are fiction, they still provide much-needed awareness that can contribute to a better future for all.
A doe looks on in a burnt forest following a fire in South Gironde, near Belin-Beliet, south-western France on August 13, 2022.
Getty ImagesCloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2004, Cloud Atlas is David Mitchell’s genre-defying work, comprised of six stories which follow a range of eclectic characters across multiple time periods. One such narrative takes place 150 years after ‘The Fall’ – a catastrophic event that wiped out civilisation and was caused by humankind. It’s described by one character, Meronym, as ‘ripping out the skies an’ boiling up the seas an’ poisoning soil with crazed atoms an’ donkey ’bout with rotted seeds so new plagues was born.’ Jonathan Zasloff from Legal Planet, an online source of climate policy and environmental law, said ‘Mitchell’s specificity here is telling. It’s an overall pattern of environmental degradation, from climate change to hazardous waste to plague. Cloud Atlas is hardly the first post-apocalyptic novel to see the collapse of civilization as environmentally caused, but it is the most famous.’
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The Overstory by Richard Powers
Divided into sections that mirror the concentric structure of a tree, Richard Powers’ 2018 Booker Prize-shortlisted novel explores the lives of nine Americans, each connected to the natural world through their appreciation of trees. Recognising the pivotal role these plants have in Earth’s survival, they each become passionately involved in environmental activism, protesting against deforestation among opposition from the government and corporations. Throughout the novel, Powers – who is also a vocal environmentalist – highlights the ways in which humans have contributed to the degradation of the earth and the importance of conserving the natural world. It’s a theme he continued in Bewilderment, a novel about an astrobiologist and his son in the face of the collapse of life on Earth, which saw him shortlisted for the prize once more in 2021.
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The New Wilderness by Diane Cook
In a world where climate change has devastated the land and overpopulation has burdened ‘The City,’ mother and daughter Bea and Agnes are looking to escape. Seeking refuge in The Wilderness, the last remaining area of protected land, they become part of a study to determine whether humans can coexist with nature. But as the volunteers become more accustomed to their new and often dangerous surroundings, their primitive instincts start to kick in. Shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, The New Wilderness explores the lengths of survival – both mentally and physically – that humans may have to endure, if we continue to pollute and ravage the natural world around us.
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In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
Leigh, a young microbiologist who travels the world studying ancient organisms, joins an exploration team to study a mysterious Atlantic trench. She finds herself on a journey of discovery, leading her to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency. Interweaving astrophysics, ecology and advanced technology, this epic work of science fiction addresses the fragility of life on Earth and the impact of human-led activity. ‘It’s my strong opinion that climate disaster has been and continues to be enabled primarily through our refusal to accept human integration in the natural world,’ Martin MacInnes says, in an author’s note within the novel. The novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023, with the panel of judges calling it ‘a Solaris for the climate-change age’.
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The Wall by John Lanchester
The Wall is set in a future where climate change has devastated an island nation, causing its inhabitants to build a wall in order to keep the ocean and the ‘Others’ out. Sea levels have risen, beaches are non-existent and it’s compulsory to undertake national service to protect the borders. Kavanagh, the novel’s protagonist, is one such protector, with his duty as a ‘Defender’ sees him having to patrol the wall for two years before his service can end. Highlighting a range of present-day issues that affect humankind, Lanchester imagines a world which one day could become a reality. The Wall was longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize, with the Independent declaring it, ‘an ambitious book, and thorough, even though it’s painting a broad dystopia. It’s about climate change, but it could be about the refugee crisis, Brexit or borders in America.’
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Reef by Romesh Gunesekera
A story of a disappearing paradise and political unrest in 1970s Sri Lanka, Reef by Romesh Gunesekera (one of the judges for the International Booker Prize 2024) follows Triton, a young man employed by Mister Salgado, a marine biologist. Salgado has a deep fascination with the ocean, especially the surrounding dying reef. ‘I’ve always written out of an urgency,’ Gunesekera told the Guardian in an interview in 2007, ‘because, any minute, everything can fall apart – including life’. Shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize, Reef was a cli-fi novel that felt ahead of its time. Through captivating prose, Gunesekera depicts a failing reef and the social unrest that engulfs a fast-disappearing paradise.
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The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023, Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting is, on the surface, a family drama set within an ordinary Irish household. There’s Dickie, who’s facing financial difficulties; and Imelda, whose secrets are hidden behind a facade of beauty. Their once high-achieving teenage daughter Cass starts to go off the rails, while their misunderstood and sensitive son PJ plans on running away from home. Contemporary issues, including climate change, are subtly woven through the novel and many of the family members are battling increasing levels of anxiety. At one point, Willie, a friend of Dickie’s, gives a stirring political speech about climate change, which Murray admitted broke ‘the fourth wall,’ in an interview with the Guardian, as it expresses many of his own views. ‘Willie is being a politician at that point, and is wooing a crowd, but I agree with much of it,’ Murray said, adding that ‘climate worry is the unavoidable background for being alive in the 21st century.’
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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
A now-modern classic, Margaret Atwood’s 1986 longlisted work of speculative fiction is set in a totalitarian world where women have been stripped of their rights and their ovaries are their most valuable possession. Her dystopian tale is set within Gilead, a polluted town fringed by uninhabitable, toxic wastelands, riddled with nuclear explosions and toxic pesticides. There is reference to unusual weather patterns which are impacting natural crop cycles, causing food scarcity – all of which were inspired by real life. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood, who is also an environmental activist, has crafted a timeless work that serves as a cautionary tale and a powerful rallying cry for the preservation of both human rights and our fragile planet.
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