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Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"Doris Lessing is one of the most important writers of the past 100 years, a shrewd visionary. . . . Her new, short, haunting novel . . . succors us with . . . unforgettable visual images. We shiver and marvel as we lose ourselves in time."— The Times (London)

In her visionary novel Mara and Dann, Doris Lessing introduced a brother and sister battling through a future landscape defined by extreme climates in the north and south. In this new novel the odyssey continues. Dann is grown up, hunting for knowledge and despondent over the inadequacies of his civilization, traveling with his friend, a snow dog who saves him from the depths of despair. Here, too, are Mara's daughter and Griot with the green eyes, an abandoned child-soldier who discovers the meaning of love and the ability to sing stories.

Like its predecessor, this brilliant novel from one of our greatest living writers explains as much about our world as it does about the future we may be heading toward.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 31, 2005
      This sequel to Lessing's futuristic novel Mara and Dann
      continues the saga of Dann, the refugee boy prince of the Mahondi, who searched with his older sister Mara for habitable land on a planet Earth beset by a new ice age. Several characters from that novel reappear, including Griot, a soldier who served under Dann, but Mara has died in childbirth. Grief deafens General Dann to the pleas of those who believe he alone can save civilization from the warring chaos of displaced populations. Lessing's long literary career includes much science fiction (the Canopus in Argos series), but this dystopia, underscored by its reluctant hero's existential dilemma—why go on just to go on?—resembles a classical myth, albeit one with no gods to intervene. As Dann disastrously tries to assuage his grief with opium, loyal Griot raises an army and finds a repository of books that preserves the wisdom of lost civilizations. Less of an adventure story than its predecessor, this sequel requires patience through several repetitive passages devoted to Dann's refusal to act. But that is a small price to pay for Lessing's acute observations.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 29, 2007
      In this sequel to Lessing's Mara and Dann, Dann is now a grown man instead of the four-year-old boy of royalty that readers met in the first saga. His initial exploits had him and older sister Mara looking for a place to live on Earth after a major ice age has covered the planet. The continent where they reside is now known as Yerrup, and Dann has become a general commanding much respect and attention and has positioned himself as a leader in this futuristic world. As the world descends into chaos, Dann launches on a new adventure with a snow dog who instinctively pulls him back from the desolation and misery of his loss. The battalion ultimately goes on to uncover a hidden library that may possess the secrets and wisdoms of lost worlds and long-gone civilizations. Recommended for urban public libraries only.

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Languages

  • English

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