The islands of Prospera lies in a vast ocean in splendid isolation from the rest of humanity, or whatever remains of it. Citizens enjoy privileged lives dedicated to the highest creative ideals. When their life time is up they are despatched to the mysterious island, The Nursery, to be ‘reiterated’ as a fresh-faced teenagers. Proctor Bennett is a Ferryman, a specialist enforcer whose job it is to shepherd the soon-to-be ‘reiterated’ into their next life cycle.
But Proctor is experiencing strange dreams and puzzling connections to people he has never met before. He has an unshakeable feeling that something is wrong with this world. Something important, something greater than anyone could possibly imagine, something which could change the fate of humanity itself.
In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Justin Cronin about crossing genre borders, what it takes to build a science fiction-fuelled dystopian world and the bureaucracy required to run it, and his exploration of the physical and psychological limitations of the increasing life span of the human race.
Justin Cronin on Crumbling Utopia
After almost a 10-year writing hiatus, JUSTIN CRONINis back with a 550-page epic, which took four years and 17 drafts to write. KAREN WILLIAMS chatted with him about The Ferryman, one of the most anticipated books of 2023.
Read on for our major feature on The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
MORE ABOUT JUSTIN CRONIN
Justin Cronin is also the author of Mary and O’Neil (which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize), and The Summer Guest. Other honors for his writing include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Whiting Writer’s Award. His work has been published in over forty-five languages and sold more than three million copies worldwide.
A writer in residence at Rice University, he divides his time between Houston, Texas, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
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