The Commons

THE COMMONS, an ecological thriller by New York Times best-selling author, Susan Dworkin, is a perfectly plausible novel set in the not-so-distant future. The year is 2165. Climate change has impoverished the world. One giant corporation governs North America, and the source of its power is control of over what remains of the food supply. Forget three squares. Now the standard ration is one meal and two snacks per day. Fishing is over. So are fruit trees. Meat is printed in laboratories. Only a few crops are still naturally field grown, and one of them is wheat, the staff of life. When an ancient wheat plague, thought to be extinct, suddenly surfaces again, the world faces starvation. An extraordinary alliance of scientists, robot spies, desperate farmers and determined public servants organizes to fight it. And at their center is a young pop singer named Lizzie, who finds to her great astonishment that she is now the voice of the revolution. Praise for THE COMMONS"This is a great futuristic coming of age novel," says Prof. Emer. Richard Zeyen of the University of Minnesota. "A must read!""An intelligent and deeply pertinent ecological thriller...a bouncing, exciting adventure that is a pleasure to read as well as an intellectual treat!" writes Kate Onyett in The Future Fire.Kay MacDonald of Big Picture Agriculture writes: "If you enjoy sci-fi and agriculture too, and you think the current dominant system just might be sitting on the precipice of a dangerous fate, this book is for you. The writing is quick, playful, vibrant - chock full of surprising descriptive embellishments guaranteed to keep the reader entertained.""I loved this book! Every time I chuckled, which was often, I had to remind myself that Dworkin's agricultural dystopia is where we really seem to be heading. The science writing is astonishing!" says Dr. Roy Gould of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics."A paean to the power of song as a subversive, vital agent for change..." says Mel Marvin, Broadway composer of The Grinch.