Book description
Doris Lessing's celebrated space fiction set in an extraordinary cosmos
where the fate of the Earth is influenced by the rivalries and
interactions of three powerful galactic empires.
The story of the final days of our planet is told through the reports
of Johor, an emissary sent from Canopus. Twentieth-century Earth, named
'Shikasta, the stricken' by the kindly, paternalistic Canopeans who
colonised it many centuries ago, is under the influence of the evil
empire of Puttiora. War, famine, disease and environmental disasters
ravage the planet. To Johor, mankind is a 'totally crazed species',
racing towards annihilation: his orders to save humanity set him what
seems to be an impossible task.
Blending myth, fable and allegory, Doris Lessing's astonishing
visionary creation both reflects and redefines the history of our own
world from its earliest beginnings to an inevitable, tragic
self-destruction. 'Magnificent … an astouding book that sets out to
chronicle the whole world of humanity, spirit, earth, stars, soul,
virtue, evil, pre-Eden forever' Myrna Blumberg, The Times
'Profound, relevant and daring' Rachel Billington, Financial Times
'Shikasta is a piercing diagnosis of the unease spreading through our
civilization. A powerful fable.' W. L. Webb, Guardian
'Shikasta is at once a brief history of the world, a tract against
human destructiveness, an ode to the natural beauties of this earth and
a hymn to the music of the spheres.' Time Doris Lessing was the winner
of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature and is one of the most important
writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Her first novel,
'The Grass is Singing' was published in 1950, and since then her
international reputation has flourished. Among her other celebrated
novels are 'The Golden Notebook', 'The Summer Before the Dark', and
'Memoirs of a Survivor'. Her most recent works include two volumes of
autobiography, 'Under my Skin' and 'Walking in the Shade', her most
recent novel is 'The Cleft'.
