Author:Andy Weir
In the Young Readers Edition of The Martian:
Classroom-appropriate language
Discussion questions and activities
Q&A with Andy Weir
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive – and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. Damaged machinery, the unforgiving environment, or plain old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.
But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit, he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
Andy Weir's masterpiece!
—— Tom Hanks , TwitterWatney's gallows humour and his brushes with death as he uses every ounce of his intelligence and astronaut's training to claw his way out of the pit will have you laughing and gasping by turns. I read this book in a weekend. I didn't think I'd have the time to - but Andy Weir's edge-of-the-seat storytelling didn't leave me any choice.
—— Richard Madeley, Richard and Judy Book ClubAndy Weir's terrific 'lost in space' novel is an absolute page turner from first to last ... Tautly-written, full of extraordinary and fascinating detail about life in a frozen red desert so far from home, The Martian is one of the best thrillers either of us has read in years. Highly recommended.
—— Judy Finnigan, Richard and Judy Book ClubThe best book I've read in ages. Clear your schedule before you crack the seal. This story will take your breath away faster than a hull breech. Smart, funny, and white-knuckle intense, The Martian is everything you want from a novel.
—— Hugh Howey , New York Times bestselling author of WoolEllroy has never been a five-pages-before-bed kind of writer; his vision is more the fever dream after lights out.
—— ObserverThis Storm, a baroqueand playful masterwork, is repulsive and propulsive, obsessive and compulsive. The juvenile delinquent has become nothing lessthan a giant of American literature.
—— Evening StandardEpic crime writing from a master
—— Daily MailLike Tolstoy, the American crime writer’s novels are big and bold affairs […] however, Ellroy is probably closer to Dostoevsky, whose work consistently exposed the darker side of human nature and the perpetual temptation between good and evil.
—— Belfast TelegraphHistorical crime doesn’t get more exciting than this.
—— The TimesMaster thriller writer
—— The TimesA compelling read
—— The Financial Timesa book that you won’t ever want to reach the final page of. All good things must come to an end but Walker’s tale of courage and fortitude will linger on
—— CultureflyThis is a wonderful book. The author brings an almost cozy domesticity to the end of the world, as his protagonist struggles to come to terms with what it means to be a husband and a father as the world falls apart around him. The central journey is a glorious roar of defiance against the brutality of a broken world and a shattered society, woven together with a lament for things lost and things left undone and unsaid. Adrian Walker breaks your heart in unexpected ways, and leaves you with a sense of stories still to be told. An end-of-the-world tale that is anything but an ending
—— Anne Corlett , author of The Space Between the StarsA fresh and frighteningly real take on what "the end" might be . . . quite an exciting and nerve-wracking ‘run’, with characters you believe in and feel for.
—— New York Times bestselling author Robert McCammonCreepy and disturbing right from the start.
—— Spooky Mrs GreenA disturbing but brilliant narrative . . . a rare treat.
—— WOMAN'S WEEKLYA pitch perfect novel, fond and atmospheric. It reads as if Gill Hornby was born to write Cassandra’s story, and she brings her whole witty and sympathetic self to the task.
—— KIRSTY WARKUtterly absorbing. The lives of the Austen sisters are recreated with a brilliant sureness of touch that can only be achieved by deep study of the period.
—— ARTEMIS COOPERGill Hornby weaves a magnificent work of the imagination, a pastiche of Regency style and manners, fabricating a solution to a problem that has long mystified scholar . . . Hornby’s portrayals of Cassandra and Jane are tantalising . . . All devotees of Austen’s novels will want to join Hornby, and Cassandra, in this enjoyable act of piety to Jane.
—— THE SPECTATORAusten aficionados have looked askance at Cassandra’s wilful destruction of her famous sibling’s letters, but here, in a tender and touching recreation of their relationship, the (imagined) correspondence is the key that unlocks the plot... Hornby deftly describes the psychological toll that such uncertainly took on Jane, and movingly celebrates the fortitude of Cassandra whose greatest love was her sister.
—— DAILY MAILA wonderfully original, emotionally complex novel that delves into why Cassandra burned a treasure trove of letters written by her sister, Jane Austen – an act of destruction that has troubled academics for centuries.
—— IRISH EXAMINERA beguilingly persuasive book that no Austen fan will want to miss.
—— READERS DIGESTA beautifully wrought drama that find Cassandra, now an elderly spinster, looking back on the life they shared. Utterly charming.
—— BESTFans will delight in this new novelby Gill Hornby, which ingeniouslyimagines what Jane’s sister Cassandra Austen’s own life might have been like.
—— VELVET MAGAZINEThis complex story reveals a clever and warm-hearted character in Cassandra, and brings us closer to one of the greatest of all English writers.
—— WOMEN'S WEEKLYA novel that will delight Pride and Prejudice fans.
—— i NewsThis is an engaging story about love, loss, and finding one's place in the world. A must-read for Jane Austen fans.
—— The Austenite (Instagram)Through her spry, witty portrait of Jane Austen’s sister, Hornby mounts a lively defence of single women’s liberty.
—— Waterstones Weekly NewsletterFans of Pride and Prejudice and Emma will enjoy this touching story[…] In her meticulously researchedthird novel, Gill Hornby skilfully imagines the correspondence between the sisters.
—— SUNDAY EXPRESSHornby does amazingly well in the riskiest area of all, the invention of letters ostensibly written by Jane […] The television rights to this novel were sold at birth. No surprise: the dialogue is ready to roll […] People are going to love it, but I wonder if any screen adaptation will be able to convey the hidden treasure within this thoughtful story.
—— LITERARY REVIEW‘It won’t surprise me if this is one of the books of the year, it’s a delight, one of those that you don’t want to end.’
—— RTEMany of the themes familiar from Austen’s novels are deftly revisited by Hornby, and the letters that are reimagined are pitch-perfect, with deeply touching confidences shared in family correspondences. You can tell this book by its cover – it’s quite lovely.
—— IRISH TIMESBeautiful novel[…] light hearted historical fiction which resembles Austen’s novels, a really lovely read very suitable for incoming spring’
—— Excuse My Reading (Instagram)Gill Hornby unfolds it all in her imagination.
—— The TimesHornby combines a moving portrait of sisterly devotion with a comic depiction of the provincial life so brilliantly evoked in Austen's own novels
—— DAILY MAIL[A]t the heart of it all there's a romantic twist..."Hornby is at her best describing the complex bonds between the excellent women of her story. She describes the horrors, but also the pleasures of spinsterhood"
—— THE TIMESI've just started reading Anne Enright's Actress. I very much enjoyed her previous novel, The Green Road. This one has glorious lines even in the opening pages.
—— Tracey Thorn , iI would definitely recommend Actress by Anne Enright, it is her at her very best.
—— Marjorie Brennan , Irish ExaminerFew reviews said how absolutely hilarious [Actress] is. Enright skewers beautifully those creepy provincial aesthetes of Dublin of the sixties and seventies.
—— Conor O'Callaghan , Irish TimesEnright is formidable in combining the concrete detail of lives – think of the extraordinary array of sibling portraits in her last novel, The Green Road – with an acute understanding of the inchoate lives of families: the push and pull of loyalty; the projection of desires; the smothering of disappointment and unhappiness. Here she conjures [a] rollicking story.
—— Alex Clark , Oldie *Novel of the Month*A rich, impressively imagined work about a stage and screen star who may never have existed but seems considerably more human than many real-life figures as seen through their own eyes or those of any but the finest biographers.
—— Philip Fisher , British Theatre GuideThis story is about mothers and daughters, but also secrets in families and women in Ireland. It's an easy read, with a quintessentially Irish tone... It's brilliant.
—— Jess Phillips , ObserverAnne Enright's brilliant novel is a darkly glittering account of the cost to both the mother and her daughter of Katherine's complicated fame.
—— Jane Shilling , Daily MailA gem from a former Booker winner.
—— Susie Mesure , i, *Summer Books of 2021*Anne Enright['s]...writing is simply glorious. Comedy and tragedy in one.
—— Mary Lawson , Daily Mail, *Books of the Year*