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Ice

By Anna Kavan
Penguin Classics
Series: Penguin Modern Classics
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.65 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 11,388 ratings, 2,000 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Ice by Anna Kavan is set in an apocalyptic world where a mysterious ice is encroaching globally. Amidst this icy encroachment, the protagonist undertakes a surreal and obsessive quest to rescue a fragile, ethereal woman. The narrative weaves between dreamlike realities and chilling landscapes, exploring themes of power, control, and survival in a collapsing world.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate surreal, dreamlike narratives and are drawn to dystopian worlds with a sense of mystery and psychological depth. Its haunting and poetic prose may also captivate those who favour introspective and literary fiction.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A classic 1960s novel of J.G. Ballard-ian strangeness, from one of Britain's most haunting and unforgettable voices.

The world is threatened by encroaching ice, creeping down day by day from the polar ice caps. The imminent catastrophe has thrown the world's governments into chaos, and no one knows whether the disaster has an environmental or nuclear cause, or how soon the end will come.

One man pursues his sylph-like, silver-haired ex-fiancée ('the girl') as she flees from country to country, away from her husband; away from the malevolent 'warden' of one of the proto-territories that have sprung up as traditional societies crumble; away from him.

Series: Penguin Modern Classics

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Anna Kavan's Ice is praised for its poetic brilliance and unique vision, offering an unsettling and hallucinatory experience. Reviewers highlight its enigmatic and mysterious nature, with comparisons to the haunting imagery of "The Ancient Mariner." The novel is admired for its intensity and has been described as a terrifying yet fascinating exploration of the end of the world, presenting a richly evocative and addictive narrative.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241307397

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 November 2017

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 11.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 147g

Pages: 192

Collections

Anna Kavan Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Classic Science Fiction Dystopian Fiction Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Penguin Books Penguin Classics Penguin Classics: General Fiction Sci-Fi & Fantasy Science Fiction Series: Penguin Modern Classics

About the Author

Anna Kavan was born in 1901, the only child of a wealthy British family. She began publishing under her married name, Helen Ferguson. During this time, she was introduced to heroin by her tennis coach in order to improve her game. She suffered a breakdown after the end of her second marriage, and was committed to an institution to treat both her depression and her addiction. She published her two best-known novels after this experience, Asylum Piece and Ice, under 'Anna Kavan', the name of a character in an earlier novel. She died of heart failure at her home in London in 1968.

Also by Anna Kavan

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  • Ice
    Introducing Little Clothbound Classics—irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas, and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. Set in a frozen world that is gradually being devastated by ever-encroaching ice, Anna Kavan's masterwork follows one man's pursuit of a mysterious silver-haired girl to the ends of the earth; to the end of everything.
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  • I Am Lazarus
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    This collection of fifteen stories from the cult author of Ice examines war and mental illness from her signature surreal point of view. Inspired by Kavan's own experiences nursing traumatised Second World War soldiers and as a patient in various asylums, these pieces communicate the claustrophobia and isolation of life amidst conflict or caught in the gears of an institutional...
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  • Ice
    A strange and compelling classic of dystopian and climate fiction, one that with foreboding and deep compassion maps the psyche and the terrain of dislocation - Jeff VanderMeer One might become convinced that Kavan had seen the future - New Yorker Ice will soon cover the entire globe. As the glacial tide creeps forward, society breaks down. Hurtling through the...
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  • Sleep Has His House
    An unhappy family returns to Britain from a hot country, filling their suburban house with the glittering hoard they brought back from their exotic sojourn. But the sadness of A, the wife, dulls the shine of their treasure. The house grows quieter, darker. Daughter B learns to hide inside it, in a night-time world whose colours are undimmed by the...
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  • Ice
    A dreamlike, frozen dystopia from one of the twentieth century's most unique writers. No one knows why the ice has come, and no one can stop it. Every day it creeps further across the earth, covering the land in snow and freezing everything in its path. Through this bleached, devastated world, one man pursues the silver-haired girl he loves, as...
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