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Environment

Tim Winton's post-apocalyptic new novel is terrifying and brilliant

A man and young girl drive across a scorched Australian outback in Juice, an extraordinary new sci-fi novel where nothing is what it first seems, says Emily H. Wilson

By Emily Wilson

23 October 2024

×îÐÂÂ鶹ÊÓƵ. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

In the post-collapse outback of Juice, people live partly underground

Andrew Merry/Getty Images


Tim Winton (Picador)

The latest novel by Tim Winton (twice shortlisted for the Booker prize) is Juice, and it begins in a deceptively familiar, even clichéd fashion. A man and a young girl in a futuristic, pimped-up vehicle are crossing a post-apocalyptic Australian outback. Even in the real world, the outback holds many dangers for the unprepared. Winton’s fictional, far-future outback is so hot and ruined that it is barely survivable even for the extremely experienced and well-prepared man at the wheel. And the girl…

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