Zone One - Colson Whitehead

Zone One

By: Colson Whitehead

Paperback | 6 September 2012 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


$31.25

or 4 interest-free payments of $7.81 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

In this wry take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. Now the plague is receding, and Americans are busy rebuildandshy;ing civilisation under orders from the provisional governandshy;ment based in Buffalo.

Their top mission: the resettlement of Manhattan. Armed forces have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street - aka Zone One - but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain. While the army has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety - the 'malfunctioning' stragglers, who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives.

Mark Spitz is a member of one of the civilian teams workandshy;ing in lower Manhattan. Alternating between flashbacks of Spitz's desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative, the novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigours of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder, and the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world. And then things start to go wrong.

Both spine chilling and playfully cerebral, Zone One brilandshyliantly subverts the genre's conventions and deconstructs the zombie myth for the twenty-first century.

About the Author

Colson Whitehead is the author of the novels Zone One; Sag Harbor; The Intuitionist, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award; John Henry Days, which won the Young Lions Fiction Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and Apex Hides the Hurt, winner of the PEN Oakland Award. He has also written a book of essays about his home town, The Colossus of New York, and a non-fiction account of the 2011 World Series of Poker called The Noble Hustle. A recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship, he lives in New York City.

His latest, The Underground Railroad, is an Oprah's Book Club pick.
Industry Reviews
A dark futuristic satire laced with fiendish humour * The Times *
Exhilarating, heartbreaking -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *
Profoundly thoughtful... Zone One is a dark mirror, to be sure, but there is no doubt it is our own age that is being scrutinised here * New Statesman *
A zombie story with brains... Whitehead can spin gore into macabre poetry * Washington Post *
As satirical and gut-wrenchingly emotional as it is horrific, Zone One is the zombie tale at its literary best * SciFi Now *
A cool, thoughtful and, for all its ludic violence, strangely tender novel * New York Times Book Review *
Punchy cocktail of horror, comedy and social critique * Metro *
Often simultaneously arch and sombre, Whitehead's narrative flares with a sociological intelligence -- Benjamin Evans * Daily Telegraph *

Genre Bending Fiction - Essential Reads

The Invention of Hugo Cabret : Caldecott Medal Book - Brian Selznick
Slaughterhouse 5 : Vintage Classics - Kurt Vonnegut
The Princess Bride - William Goldman

RRP $23.95

$23.75

Hard-Boiled Wonderland - Haruki Murakami

RRP $22.99

$21.90

The Time Traveler's Wife : Vintage Magic - Audrey Niffenegger

RRP $22.99

$21.90

Beloved : Reading Guide Edition - Toni Morrison

RRP $22.99

$21.90

The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster

RRP $26.99

$24.99

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - Claire North
The Rings of Saturn : Vintage Classics - W G Sebald

RRP $22.99

$21.90

If On A Winter's Night A Traveller : Vintage Classics - Italo Calvino
The Passion : Vintage Blue - Jeanette Winterson

RRP $22.99

$21.90

The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes

RRP $24.99

$24.50

11.22.63 - Stephen King

Paperback

$38.75

Radiance : Tom Thorne Novels - Catherynne M. Valente
The Teleportation Accident - Ned Beauman
Stranger Things Happen : Stories - Kelly Link
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon

RRP $22.99

$22.90

The Wilds - Julia Elliott

Paperback

$39.33

Autobiography Of Red : Cape Poetry - Anne Carson
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville

$38.75

Normal : A Novel - Warren Ellis

Paperback

$32.28

Zone One - Colson Whitehead

Paperback

$31.25

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

Other Books By Colson Whitehead

The Nickel Boys : Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize - Colson Whitehead
Crook Manifesto : Fast, fun, ribald  Sunday Times - Colson Whitehead
Apex Hides the Hurt - Colson Whitehead

RRP $22.99

$22.90

The Intuitionist - Colson Whitehead

RRP $22.99

$22.90

The Colossus of New York - Colson Whitehead

RRP $22.99

$22.90

Zone One - Colson Whitehead

Paperback

$31.25

Crook Manifesto : Fast, fun, ribald  Sunday Times - Colson Whitehead
Harlem Shuffle - Colson Whitehead

RRP $24.99

$24.50

Zone One - Colson Whitehead

Not Supplied By Publisher

$33.75

Colossus of New York - Colson Whitehead

$35.50

Sag Harbor - Colson Whitehead

Not Supplied By Publisher

$37.25

The Noble Hustle : Poker, Beef Jerky and Death - Colson Whitehead

$33.75

The Intuitionist : A Novel - Colson Whitehead
John Henry Days - Colson Whitehead

Not Supplied By Publisher

$40.25

The Nickel Boys : A Novel - Colson Whitehead

Not Supplied By Publisher

$33.75

Sag Harbour - Colson Whitehead

Paperback

$31.25

Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

$35.50

The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) : A Novel - Colson Whitehead