The Annihilation (Jeff Vandermeer)

'A contemporary masterpiece' GUARDIAN

'Creepy and fascinating' STEPHEN KING

'A psycho-geograpical tour de force' FINANCIAL TIMES

ADAPTED INTO A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

With a new introduction by award-winning author Karen Joy Fowler.

In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's now-classic Southern Reach series, Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades and nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilisation. Expedition after expedition into Area X has failed to uncover its mysteries and the true nature of its danger to the world.

Now a twelfth expedition makes the attempt, a group of four women: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist and the narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X.

A harrowing cosmic mystery at the vanguard of eco-fiction, Annihilation has only become more pertinent to our reality ten years after its first publication.

'Genuinely potent and dream-haunting' GUARDIAN

'Arresting, unsettling, and unforgettable' NEW YORKER

'The best bits turn your mind inside out' WASHINGTON POST

'Shot through with echoes of Lovecraft, Orwell, and Kafka ... compulsively readable' ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Jeff VanderMeer is the author of Hummingbird Salamander, the Borne novels, the Southern Reach Series, the Ambergris Trilogy and Veniss Underground. He writes widely about issues relating to climate change and the environment.