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Environment

Tim Winton's post-apocalyptic new novel is terrifying and brilliant

A man and young girl drive across a scorched Australian outback in Juice, an extraordinary new sci-fi novel where nothing is what it first seems, says Emily H. Wilson

By Emily Wilson

23 October 2024

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

In the post-collapse outback of Juice, people live partly underground

Andrew Merry/Getty Images

Juice
Tim Winton (Picador)

The latest novel by Tim Winton (twice shortlisted for the Booker prize) is Juice, and it begins in a deceptively familiar, even clichéd fashion. A man and a young girl in a futuristic, pimped-up vehicle are crossing a post-apocalyptic Australian outback. Even in the real world, the outback holds many dangers for the unprepared. Winton’s fictional, far-future outback is so hot and ruined that it is barely survivable even for the extremely experienced and well-prepared man at the wheel. And the girl…

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