What if the only hope for survival becomes the greatest threat?
The world has fallen. Without warning, a mysterious and omnipotent force has claimed the planet for their own. There are no negotiations, no demands, no reasons given for their actions. All they have is a message: humanity has thirty days to reach the one place on Earth where they will be allowed to exist… Antarctica.
Cold People follows the journeys of a handful of people who endure the frantic exodus to the most extreme environment on the planet. But their goal is not merely to survive the present. Because, as they cling to life on the ice with the remnants of their past swept away, they must also confront an urgent challenge: can they change and evolve rapidly enough to ensure humanity’s future? Can they build a new society in the sub-zero cold?
As profoundly intimate as it is grand in scope, Cold People is an unforgettable epic, about a colony of global apocalypse survivors seeking to reinvent civilisation under the most extreme conditions imaginable.
Tom Rob Smith is the author of Child 44, a global publishing sensation that was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His last novel was the 2015 bestseller The Farm. Since then, he’s carved out a successful career writing for television, something that’s apparent in his long-awaited fifth novel, Cold People. It’s a pitch-perfect commercial novel with literary polish. It has all the qualities that landed Child 44 on the Booker longlist: elegant prose, a page-turning plot and profound depth, all now merged with a cinematic feel. There is already intense interest for the film rights, and I have no doubt this excellent book will make it to the screen. It’s sensational.
Part one is only three pacy chapters long, taking leaps through human history in Antarctica; a powerful reminder that this is no place for humans.
Then, the present-day story opens in a small fishing town south of Portugal. American student Liza meets local tour guide Atto and there is an undeniable draw. They go out on a boat for the day, and when they return, the whole world has changed: an alien race has arrived and humans are given thirty days to find their way to Antarctica. While this could sound like a typical Armageddon-type premise, it’s anything but. In Rob Smith’s hands, there’s no real explanation for why the mysterious beings have taken over the planet. This isn’t questioned, which adds to the tension and keeps the reader tearing through the pages as a mass exodus begins.
I could not put this book down. The story is predominantly told from Liza and Atto’s perspectives, jumping twenty years into the future once they’ve made it to Antarctica. By this time, scientists have been experimenting with genetically modified babies – called ice adapted people – to help humans survive.
While Cold People has the premise and pace of a gripping dystopian thriller, it’s actually a deeply disturbing yet insightful and wise exploration of what makes us human. Weaved into this are questions around artificial intelligence and genetically engineered people, and also love.
I could go on – I’m raving about Cold People to anyone who’ll listen. It’s chilling (pun intended), masterful and entertaining… an unforgettable reading experience.
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