Explorers of the New Century - Paperback

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by Magnus Mills (Author)

When Magnus Mills gives the world a shake, you never know what might fall out of his pockets," proclaims the Los Angeles Times. In his terse new tour de force of a tale, Mills gives history a shake, and you'll never guess what the fallout is. Set at the dawn of the great age of exploration, the era of Shackleton and Perry and Scott, the book presents the adventures of two intrepid teams, both vying to reach the AFP, or Agreed Furthest Point-a worthy, even ennobling cause. The competition is friendly but conditions are extreme. To get through the arid, lifeless landscape, both teams must learn to make sacrifices, sacrifices that will change just about everything.

Mills burst on the literary scene a decade ago with The Restraint of Beasts, a novel Thomas Pynchon called a "demented, deadpan-comic wonder." This new work proves that he has become a master storyteller whose books are each "as welcome as a warm bus on a rainy day" (The Oregonian).

Back Jacket

Daily we stumble over shale and flint, toiling onwards in the vague belief that at some distant time and place we ll see the sun rise again; and that spreading before us will be vast, hospitable ranges where the mules may finally be turned loose.
At the dawn of a great age of exploration closely resembling that of Shackleton and Perry and Scott two teams of explorers set off through an arid, lifeless landscape. Both are vying to reach the Agreed Furthest Point, or AFP, first: One team takes the western route across seemingly endless rocky scree; the other negotiates a dry riverbed. And both rely heavily on their mules for survival. The burden of that dependency bears a price.
Magnus Mills s new novel proves he has no equal in his mastery of the dark-comic fable. In prose whose genius lies in its very matter-of-factness, ominousness grows with every step the intrepid explorers take. Every decision feels fateful; every mistake potentially fatal. Yet the white-knuckle drama of the race to reach the AFP pales in comparison to the revelation Mills delivers in this riveting tour de force, a revelation that changes just about everything.
Praise for The Restraint of Beasts
A witty, intricate fable about a working-class hell constructed by its own inhabitants. The New York Times
The Restraint of Beasts, designed both to amuse and to alarm, resembles an electrified fence: once you ve grabbed hold there s no letting go. The New Yorker
Magnus Mills is the author of four previous novels, including Three to See the King and The Restraint of Beasts, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award in England. His work has been translated into twenty languages. Mills lives in London.
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