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H2O a novel by Mark Swartz 1-933368-19-5 Soft
Skull Press Trade
Paper Fiction 5 x
8 160pp. $13.00 Mark Swartz's second novel H2O is set in Chicago in
the year 2020. Think of it as an inverted Cat’s
Cradle. This time, water itself—or something
like it—is the seed of doom, and ICE-9 may be the only salvation. With the entire world facing a dire
shortage of drinkable water, filters and drains engineer Hayden Shivers stumbles
upon a method for synthesizing fake water, but the new product may not be the
miracle it’s cracked up to be. |
··· H2O has
its own trailer at http://www.softskull.com/files/h20_trailer.swf ···
“Swartz's
shrewd, jittery, and noirishly atmospheric
speculative tale about a bumbling antihero and dire environmental trauma brings
an irreverent and parrying voice to ecofiction and
casts a fractured light on follies petty and catastrophic.”
—Donna Seaman, Booklist
"A
deft vision of America's postindustrial future in the stylized guise of noir
fiction.... At once fantastic and eerily plausible.... [Shivers's]
insights and unique vision not only are clever and entertaining but offer
thought-provoking commentary on America's current social and cultural
malaise."
—Bookforum
Mark
Swartz’s second novel, the noirish eco-satire H2O, makes Davis Guggenheim’s
film An Inconvenient Truth look like
a feel-good summer romance…[ H2O is] a fast, fun, ominous read.”
—Time Out New York
“A short, sharp shock--a jab to the eyeball and brain, H2O
by Mark Swartz is as telling
commentary on our society now as Don DeLillo’s White Noise was in its time. Savagely
precise, clever but not shallow, Swartz's writing lacerates even as it's
deeply, disturbingly funny.”
—Jeff
VanderMeer
Mark
Swartz is the author of Instant Karma (City Lights, 2002).
His writing has appeared in the Village
Voice, The Believer, Bomb, Bookforum, Chicago Reader, and other publications. Originally from Chicago, he
lives in Forest Hills, Queens, with his wife and daughter.
You can read more about the book and order it on the Soft Skull Press website.