Product Description

A visionary novel from Doris Lessing, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. It is sooner than you might think. And the earth's climate is much changed -- it's colder than ever before in the north, and unbearably dry and hot in the south. Mara, who is seven, and her four-year-old brother Dann find themselves somewhere very strange, not home! They are taken in by a kindly, grandmotherly woman, but this new life is hard: hunger, dirt, thirst and danger are the children's constant companions. Drought and fire carry off their adoptive home and force them to set off northward into the unknown, to experience a series of adventures that bring them through to an altogether altered world, where they can start to learn and build anew. Doris Lessing has written a compelling, troubling and entertaining novel that, through the remarkable odyssey of a brother and sister living in the imagined future, manages to tell us a great deal about the present we only dimly perceive and scarcely know how to value.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33351 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
'I hope everyone reads Mara and Dann and it wins all the prizes.' Victoria Glendinning, Literary Review 'An outstanding piece of storytelling! rich and imaginative.' Helen Dunmore, Daily Mail 'Fascinating and profoundly curious.' Rachel Cusk, Daily Express

About the Author
Doris Lessing is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007. Her first novel, 'The Grass is Singing', was published in 1950. Among her other celebrated novels are 'The Golden Notebook', 'The Fifth Child' and 'Memoirs of a Survivor'. She has also published two volumes of her autobiography, 'Under my Skin' and 'Walking in the Shade'. Her most recent novel is 'The Cleft'.

Customer Reviews

A harrowing vision of life on earth
In her novel, Mrs Lessing depicts the epic adventure of Mara and her brother Dann who live in the distant future on the African continent, then called Ifrik. Its centre is plagued by an incessant drought whereas its northern part is permanently covered by a coat of ice. Mara and Dann are respectively seven and four when they become orphans. They are brought to a place called The Rock Village and it is Daima who takes care of them. A few years later they begin their epic journey from the centre of Ifrik to its northern part where there is more water and consequently more food. During their trip they come across all kinds of primitive peoples living in very poor conditions and in many instances Dann and Mara have to fight in order to survive.
It is an apocalyptic world which Mrs Lessing imagined for her novel. One in which people live in tribe-like colonies and behave in a very aggressive manner toward each other. It is a world in which all scientific knowledge has been lost and in which there is no more room for culture or art. There are cities which were once splendid and now have either turned into ruins or have been submerged by floods. Nature has become so hostile that it is barely possible for people to inhabit the centre of Ifrik. There are giant spiders, water dragons, enormous lizards and huge beetles who can bisect a child with their pincers. A frightening vision of the future of our planet indeed.
Readers will no doubt be comforted by the fact that there are still authors today who manage to write a powerful adventure story without resorting to the tedious ingredients of guns, cars, explosions, terrorists, FBI/CIA & Co. and billions of dollars.

A compelling read
My imagination was captured by this book from the start. I picked it up in a book shop intrigued by the blurb on the back cover. Set in the future (the next ice age) where all the world is ice except (so far as we know) the continent of Africa (Ifrik) the story follows the quest of a brother and sister in finding the most basic of human requirements: water and food. They travel through much of the continent growing from children to adults, physically and mentally.
Lessing paints a very believable picture of a planet suffering the double effects of ice age and human arrogance, which she uses as the background to the story of Mara and Dann. It has a very female perspective without being a political statement. I recommend it.

Gripping
Mara and Dann are two young children travelling across Ifrik (Africa), travelling North, away from the desert and wasteland of the South. This is a re-write of one of the oldest stories - the brother and sister who survive war and famine, and eventually come to some sort of home, a sort of futuristic Isis and Osiris. And I'm not giving anything away there, Doris Lessing makes this point herself in the preface. Set against the backdrop of a new Ice Age, this book gently points out the flaws in our own society by showing what happens when humans run out of water, food and ultimately hope. Beautifully written and very gripping.