LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND

An urban dystopia of overpopulation, drought and heat. Cities cover the planet, and except for shaky television broadcasts, technology has collapsed into a steampunk digital desert. Maps have disappeared and history is forgotten. Nobody knows where they are. Nobody knows where they came from.

Nadia Stephan, entranced by fragments of ancient novels and radio broadcasts, strikes out on foot toward a distant, shining island in the sea: Lighthouse Island, a place she has only seen on a television ad. Again and again, she changes identities, running from the authorities towards a life full of stars, rain, trees, animals, fairy tales and pirate ships. But when she runs headlong into a dubious explosives expert with a flashlight, she encounters what matters most: her genuine self.

A witty and surreal flight through urban purgatory to The Lighthouse At The End of The Universe. A vivid, detailed, fully realized future that reads more like a literary, historical novel than a popular commercial dystopia; it cannot be dismissed as sci-fi or fantasy. It’s a departure for Jiles but a masterful ‘story about stories’: fairy tales, classic adventures, Orwell, Homer.

An acclaimed poet, Paulette Jiles is the author of Cousins, a memoir, and the bestselling novels Enemy Women and Stormy Weather. She lives on a small ranch west of San Antonio, Texas.