A Friend of the Earth - Paperback

by T. C. Boyle (Author)

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the award-winning author of The Tortilla Curtain comes an "entertaining and informative" (Chicago Tribune) novel about global warming and ecological collapse.

"Funny and touching, antic and affecting . . . while Boyle's humor is as black as ever, he demonstrates that satire can coexist with psychological realism, comedy with compassion."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

It is the year 2025. Global warming is a reality. The biosphere has collapsed, and most mammals--not to mention fish, birds, and frogs--are extinct. Tyrone Tierwater is eking out a bleak living in southern California, managing a pop star's private menagerie that "only a mother could love"--scruffy hyenas, jackals, warthogs, and three down-at-the-mouth lions.

It wasn't always like this for Ty. Once he was a passionate environmentalist, so committed to saving the earth that he became an eco-terrorist and, ultimately, a convicted felon. As a member of the radical group Earth Forever!, he unwittingly endangered both his daughter, Sierra, and his wife, Andrea. Now, just when he's trying to survive in a world torn by obdurate storms and winnowing drought, Andrea comes back into his life.

Blending idealism and satire, A Friend of the Earth addresses the ultimate questions of human love and the survival of the species.

Author Biography

T. C. Boyle is a novelist and regular contributor to The New Yorker. His novels include World's End and The Tortilla Curtain, and he has also published numerous collections of short stories. A Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California, he lives in Santa Barbara.