Denial

by Jon Raymond Narrated by George Newbern

Overview

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE

A futuristic thriller about climate change by the acclaimed screenwriter of First Cow, Meek's Cutoff, and HBO's Mildred Pierce.

The year is 2052. Climate change has had a predictably devastating effect: Venice submerged, cyclones in Oklahoma, megafires in South America. Yet it could be much worse. Two decades earlier, the global protest movement known as the Upheavals helped break the planet's fossil fuel dependency, and the subsequent Nuremberg-like Toronto Trials convicted the most powerful oil executives and lobbyists for crimes against the environment. Not all of them. A few executives escaped arrest and went into hiding, including pipeline mastermind Robert Cave.

Now, a Pacific Northwest journalist named Jack Henry who works for a struggling media company has received a tip that Cave is living in Mexico. Hoping the story will save his job, he travels south and, using a fake identity, makes contact with the fugitive. The two men strike up an unexpected friendship, leaving Jack torn about exposing Cave-an uncertainty further compounded by the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness and a new romance with an old acquaintance. Who will really benefit from the unmasking? What is the nature of justice and punishment? How does one contend with mortality when the planet itself is dying?

Denial is both a page-turning speculative suspense novel and a powerful existential inquisition about the perilous moment in which we currently live.

Editorial Reviews

AUGUST 2022 - AudioFile

In 2052, the world is no longer dependent on fossil fuel. World leaders are putting oil executives on trial for the damage they committed to the environment. Narrator George Newbern gives an unflappable performance as Jack Henry, an investigative reporter who finds an escaped executive hiding in plain sight in Mexico. When Jack befriends Robert Cave, listeners can hear the sincere relationship between the two. Even so, Jack knows his discovery could enhance his reputation. Newbern does an excellent job of leading listeners through the complexities of Jack’s transformation and his understanding of what it would mean to reveal the whereabouts of Cave. Will anything change if Cave goes to jail? Listeners may not agree with the resolution of this futuristic story. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

04/11/2022

The engaging speculative latest from screenwriter and novelist Raymond (Freebird) imagines a future in which a slew of energy executives and lobbyists have been convicted of environmental crimes. In 2052, reporter Jack Henry is hot on the trail of Robert Cave, a former fossil fuel official who fled the U.S. during the trials in 2032, was convicted in absentia, and has never paid for his offenses. After one of Jack’s sources spots Cave in Guadalajara, Jack convinces his boss to send him to Mexico to ferret Cave out. Jack scouts Cave at a museum café, and Cave strikes up a conversation with him. The two meet again the next day, and as Jack is introduced to Cave’s new life, he grows fond of his target, who knows nothing of Jack’s planned exposure, and wrestles with the ramifications of following through with his scheme. The narrative works best when it focuses on Jack and Cave, as their interactions drive the novel into unexpected directions. Less successful is a tame romance subplot between Jack and an old friend. Still, Raymond satisfies with a clever vision of a not-too-distant future. The moral ambiguity at the center leaves readers with much to chew on. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (July)

From the Publisher

Engaging... Raymond satisfies with a clever vision of a not-too-distant future. The moral ambiguity at the center leaves readers with much to chew on.” —Publishers Weekly

“I haven’t read anything like this before. Jon Raymond has taken climate fiction in a new and exciting direction. In this post-apocalyptic world, the apocalypse itself has receded and the strange, maddening work of climate reparations has begun. This exhilarating novel is as fast-paced as a thriller, but the mystery at the heart of it is not who committed the crime but how to live in its eerie aftermath.”—Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation and the New York Times bestseller Weather

“The future is so painful to think about, and yet I was totally hooked into Jon Raymond’s rendition of it in Denial, set in 2052: a world with new-fangled exhaustless cars but old philosophical quandaries, and older rituals: the bullfight, the scapegoat, the love interest. I blew through this book too quickly, but will be thinking about it for a long time to come.”—Rachel Kushner, author of The Flamethrowers and the New York Times bestseller The Mars Room

“Denial is a riveting tale that dares to imagine the afterlife of meaningful climate action. Jon Raymond wonders beautifully what it might feel like to summon the collective will to alter our society's suicidal arrangement. A thrilling and boldly hopeful ode to moving on, however imperfectly.”—Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus and I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness

“What if we took the climate crisis seriously enough to punish its worst perpetrators? Denial is a thrilling ride into a near future where corporate villains are being brought to justice, but the justice is complicated—and so are some of the villains. Jon Raymond is a deft, sharp, exhilarating storyteller whose gift is to make us laugh even as he’s asking dead-serious questions about our collective peril.”—Leni Zumas, author of the national bestseller Red Clocks

“Topical yet timeless, Denial is a layered investigation of our past and future, our perceptions and our blind spots. Jon Raymond writes with economy and elegance, crafting a finely-tuned story that is thoughtful, gripping and even moving all at the same time.”—Charles Yu, National Book Award-winning author of Interior Chinatown

“Denial is a short, sharp book, a subtle exploration of what justice means on the other side of human-driven climate calamity. Jon Raymond has created a scarily plausible future, and against this future considers one of the pivotal questions of our age—how to hold responsible those who, in the dizzying days before the worst of things, profited off the planet’s destruction. There are no easy answers in this novel, only a deeply humane look at the chasm between crime and punishment, cause and consequence.”—Omar El Akkad, author of the national bestseller American War and What Strange Paradise

AUGUST 2022 - AudioFile

In 2052, the world is no longer dependent on fossil fuel. World leaders are putting oil executives on trial for the damage they committed to the environment. Narrator George Newbern gives an unflappable performance as Jack Henry, an investigative reporter who finds an escaped executive hiding in plain sight in Mexico. When Jack befriends Robert Cave, listeners can hear the sincere relationship between the two. Even so, Jack knows his discovery could enhance his reputation. Newbern does an excellent job of leading listeners through the complexities of Jack’s transformation and his understanding of what it would mean to reveal the whereabouts of Cave. Will anything change if Cave goes to jail? Listeners may not agree with the resolution of this futuristic story. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176003710
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	07/26/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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