New Releases by J. G. Ballard

J. G. Ballard''s collected nonfiction from 1962 to 2007, mapping the cultural obsessions, experiences, and insights of one of the most original minds of his generation. J. G. Ballard was a colossal figure in English literature and an imaginative force of the twentieth century. Alongside seminal novels—from the notorious Crash (1973) to the semi-autobiographical Empire of the Sun (1984)—Ballard was a sought-after reviewer and commentator, publishing journalism, memoir, and cultural criticism in a variety of forms. This volume collects the most significant short nonfiction of Ballard''s fifty-year career, extending the range of the only previous collection of his nonfiction, A User''s Guide to the Millennium (1996), which selected essays and reviews published between 1962 and 1995. A decade on from Ballard''s death in 2009, a new generation of readers needs a new collection. In the period following A User''s Guide, Ballard''s writing addressed 9/11, British politics from New Labour onward, and what he termed “the rise of soft fascism”—a diagnosis that maintains its relevance amid a shift toward right populism in European and US politics. Beautifully edited by Ballard scholar and novelist Mark Blacklock, this volume includes Ballard''s editorials and manifestos; commentaries on his own work; commentaries on the work of others; reviews; and more. Above all, it makes the case for the currency of Ballard''s work at a contemporary juncture at which so many of his diagnoses concerning the media and politics have become apparent.

Yet again J. G. Ballard’s inimitable clairvoyance is on display in this timely, powerful story of a community shattered by a massive act of violence. A massacre rocks a suburban utopia—thirty-two adults murdered, and their children missing—in Running Wild, one of Ballard’s most dazzlingly subversive works of fiction. “To Ballard, lack of choice . . . is a dangerous state of being. In Running Wild, it’s not the children who are doing the running; it is the society that raised them” (San Francisco Chronicle).

A must-read for any J. G. Ballard fan, this “capstone to a magnificent career” is the essential sequel to Empire of the Sun (San Francisco Chronicle). Published in 1991, this semi-autobiographical novel is a daring masterpiece from “one of the most important and intelligent voices in contemporary fiction” (Susan Sontag). “Rueful the way Primo Levi’s work was” (New York Times Book Review), the novel follows fifteen-year-old Jim Graham as he leaves the ruins of postwar Shanghai, only to find that he cannot escape his own obsession with death.

A u200bKAPUKON BELÜL AZ APOKALIPSZIS VÁR Az orvos Robert Laing válását követően egy vadonatúj, hipermodern toronyházba költözik London peremén. Ez a minden igényt kielégítő épület teljeskörű kiszolgálást nyújt, lakóinak ki se kell lépni a kapun. És ez a maximális önellátás különös következménnyel jár: a lakóközösség lassan leválik a kinti társadalomról, és kialakítja saját hierarchiáját. Laing is beilleszkedik a rendszerbe, összebarátkozik Charlotte-tal, a gyermekét egyedül nevelő anyával, és Richard Wilderrel, a lázadó természetű dokumentumfilmessel. Aztán egyszer csak homokszem kerül a gépezetbe. Az ellátás akadozni kezd, és az emberekben eddig, az udvarias felszín alá söpört elégedetlenség és sok-sok apró sérelem vulkánként tör ki. Egész emeletek fordulnak egymás ellen, folyosókat, lépcsőházakat és lifteket szállnak meg, lakásokat fosztanak ki, és a harc hamarosan már életre-halálra megy. Laing félúton reked az épület teteje és alja között, és miközben körülötte elszabadul a pokol, ismerőseiről egyre furcsább dolgok derülnek ki, és végül szembekerül az események bábmesterével, a toronyház legfelső szintjén élő, titokzatos tervezővel. J. G. Ballard, A Nap birodalma és a Karambol világhírű szerzője olyan rendezőket ihletett már meg, mint Steven Spielberg és David Cronenberg. Ebből a mesterművéből Tom Hiddleston és Jeremy Irons főszereplésével készült film. „A könyv legalább annyira releváns most, mint a megírásakor. Ugyan a 70-es években született, egyfajta közeli jövő képét vázolva fel, de mi most pontosan ebben a jövőben élünk.” – Ben Wheatley, a regényből készült film rendezője „Ballard legjobb regénye… Parádés.” – The Times

"This fable lifts a great freight of ideas effortlessly…The story of an expedition driven on by wishes of possession and power but guided internally by myths of America whose sources lie in the late 20th century." —Guardian Following the energy crisis of the late twentieth century, America has been abandoned. Now, a century later, a small group of European explorers returns to the now climatically mutated continent. But America is unrecognizable—the Bering Strait has been dammed and much of the country has become a desert, populated by isolated natives and the bizarre remnants of a disintegrated culture. The expedition sets off from Manhattan on a cross-country journey, through Holiday Inns and abandoned theme parks, to uncover a shocking new power in the heart of Las Vegas.

"A remarkable piece of invention, a flight from the world of the familiar and the real into the exotic universe of dream and desire." —New York Times Book Review When a light aircraft crashes into the Thames at Shepperton, the young pilot who struggles to the surface minutes later seems to have come back from the dead. Within hours everything in the dormitory suburb is transformed. Vultures invade rooftops, luxuriant tropical vegetation overruns the quiet avenues, and the local inhabitants are propelled by the young man’s urgent visions through ecstatic sexual celebrations toward an apocalyptic climax. In this characteristically inventive novel Ballard displays to devastating effect the extraordinary imagination that has established him as one of the twentieth century’s most visionary writers.

The classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg’s film, tells of a young boy’s struggle to survive World War II in China. Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a strength greater than all the events that surround him. Shanghai, 1941—a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor. In streets full of chaos and corpses, a young British boy searches in vain for his parents. Imprisoned in a Japanese concentration camp, he is witness to the fierce white flash of Nagasaki, as the bomb bellows the end of the war...and the dawn of a blighted world. Ballard’s enduring novel of war and deprivation, internment camps and death marches, and starvation and survival is an honest coming-of-age tale set in a world thrown utterly out of joint.

"[A] chilling . . . tale about humans who gamely follow their own worst instincts.”—Chicago Tribune Led by a charismatic and slightly unhinged woman, a group of environmentalists wrest control over a small South Pacific island in hopes of cultivating it into their own private Eden. But paradise is not quite what it seems in this “searing” (Kirkus Reviews) send-up of environmentalism, feminism, and extremism of all sorts.

The author of such novels as "Empire of the Sun" and "Crash" recalls his childhood, his first attempts at science fiction, and his life as a single father after the premature death of his wife.

Román britského autora J.G. Ballarda Království tvé je katastrofickou vizí Anglie a naší současnosti vůbec. Smutným „hrdinou“ je malé město u Londýna, kde postavili obrovské nákupní středisko. Konzumní způsob života, který s ním přišel, zničil veškeré společenské vazby mezi lidmi a převrátil jejich hodnoty. V celém kraji bují rasismus a násilí a po pumovém útoku na nákupní středisko rozpoutá běsnící dav revoluci. Zdá se, že jediným státním zřízením, které by mohlo širokým masám vyhovovat, je fašistický režim.

A startling and at times unsettlingly prescient collection of J.G. Ballard’s greatest interviews.

From one of the most powerful and original talents in science fiction comes the story of a new world--a strange world where solar radiation fluctuations have melted the polar ice caps, flooding the land and raising the temperature of the atmosphere.

First in a two volume collection of short stories by the acclaimed author of Empire of the Sun, Crash, Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes.

"Compulsively absorbing: the white heat of its images seems to burn off the page, and the surreal landscapes linger on in the mind." —Independent On the arid, war-plagued terrain of central Africa, a manic doctor is consumed with visions of transforming the Sahara into a land of abundance. But Dr. Mallory’s obsession quickly spirals dangerously out of control. First published in 1987, this classic Ballard thriller continues to resonate “with dark implications for the future of humanity” (Publishers Weekly).

Class war erupts in a luxurious high-rise apartment building.

An apocalyptic dystopia like no other, one whose "originality and power [of] vision can be felt" (Times Literary Supplement). Water. Man’s most precious commodity is a luxury of the past. Radioactive waste from years of industrial dumping has caused the sea to form a protective skin strong enough to devastate the Earth it once sustained. And while the remorseless sun beats down on the dying land, civilization itself begins to crack. The world is threatened by dramatic climate change in this highly acclaimed and influential novel, one of the most important early works by the best-selling author of Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes.

An unemployed advertising executive investigates why the deranged man who shot his father in a shopping mall was released without being charged.

After his ex-wife is killed in a bombing at Heathrow airport, David Markham infiltrates the shadowy protest group responsible and finds himself becoming brainwashed by the group''s charismatic leader.

Collects all ninety-two of the late author''s stories -- including "Prima Belladonna," "Dead Time," and "The Index" -- which span five decades and explore everything from musical orchids to human cannibalism to the secret history of World War III.

In this acclaimed speculative novel, the author of Crash imagines an exclusive business park that hides a ghastly mystery: “One of his finest” (San Francisco Chronicle). For forty years, J.G. Ballard has shared his unnervingly prescient vision of where civilization was headed. He kept his unflinching eye on the point where technological progress has worn away our humanity. And Super-Cannes is Ballard at his best: “Rarely has his vision been so total, his creation so complete” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). Eden-Olympia is more than just a multinational business park. Isolated and secure, overlooking the French Riviera, it is a virtual city-state offering the latest in services and facilities for the most elite high-tech industries. Yet one day Dr. Greenwood from Eden-Olympia’s clinic goes on a suicidal shooting spree. Dr. Jane Sinclair is hired as his replacement, and she and her husband, Paul, are given Dr. Greenwood’s house as a residence. Convalescing after an accident, Paul becomes fascinated with Dr. Greenwood and his shocking crimes. Clues in the house lead him to question Eden-Olympia’s official account. While Jane is lured deeper into Eden-Olympia’s inner workings, Paul uncovers the dangerous psychological vents that maintain its smoothly running surface. Soon he finds himself in race against crushing forces that may be beyond anyone’s control.

From the iconic author of Crash and Empire of the Sun, Cocaine Nights features a man who finds himself drawn into a network of drugs, pornography, and murder in a Spanish resort. The remarkable bestseller from one of the giants of modern British literature--at once an engrossing mystery and an unnerving vision of a society coming to terms with a life of unlimited leisure. When Charles Prentice arrives in Spain to investigate his brother''s involvement in the death of five people in a fire in the upmarket coastal resort of Estrella de Mar, he gradually discovers that beneath the civilised, cultured surface of this exclusive enclave for Britain''s retired rich there flourishes a secret world of crime, drugs and illicit sex . What starts as an engrossing mystery develops into a mesmerising novel of ideas--a dazzling work of the imagination from one of Britain''s most original and controversial novelists.

Duos.

A highly sought cultural commentator, J. G. Ballard has provided thoughtful remarks on the state of the world for decades. J.G. Ballard Conversations brings together several of Ballard''s latest interviews and gives readers penetrating insight into the mind of one of the freshest thinkers at work today. Covering topics such at the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the evolution of sexual relationships, and our strange, immersive celebrity culture, this book is a fount of provocative takes on the things that matter. Rounded out with rare photographs of Ballard and supplemental resources, J.G. Ballard Conversations is a necessary item for anyone interested in the modern world

At Port-la-Nouvelle, on the parched terrain of central Africa, Dr. Mallory watches as his clinic fails and dreams of discovering a third Nile that will make the Sahara bloom. When there is a trickle on the local airstrip, and soon a river, the obsessed Mallory claims it as his own creation and sets out for the river’s source.

Sinopsis: Roger Maitland, arquitecto, de treinta y cinco años, descubre después de un accidente en la autopista de Londres que no puede salir de la isla de tránsito donde ha caído y que se extiende bajo los tres carriles. Nadie se detiene a recogerlo, y como un nuevo Crusoe, Maitland no cuenta con otros recursos que el contenido del Jaguar y su propia fortaleza. Mientras intenta sobrevivir a esta ordalía física y psicológica, empieza a entender también los motivos ambiguos que lo han llevado a ese paisaje de hierba y cemento, imagen y escenario de su propia alienación.

The West African jungle starts to crystallize - the trees are metamorphosed into enormous jewels, crocodiles are encased in second skins. Most men flee the area in terror, but some remain to drift through this dreamworld forest. By the author of Empire of the Sun.

The stories in this collection explore the human psyche and its relationship to nature and technology.

A war-ravaged Beirut is the setting for the title story of this visionary collection, a tale in which a young street fighter inadvertently discovers how to bring an to the bloodshed only to find that his solution is all too effective as far as some supposedly neutral observers are concerned. Other stories feature an assassination plot against an American astronaut, the leader of an authoritarian religious movement; a man who is destroyed by a car crash and resolves never to leave his apartment again; and the survivor of a toxic-waste ship wrecked on a deserted Caribbean island.