The Commons

THE COMMONS, an ecological thriller by New York Times best-selling author, Susan Dworkin, is a perfectly plausible novel set in the not-so-distant future. The year is 2165. Climate change has impoverished the world. One giant corporation governs North America, and the source of its power is control of over what remains of the food supply. Forget three squares. Now the standard ration is one meal and two snacks per day. Fishing is over. So are fruit trees. Meat is printed in laboratories. Only a few crops are still naturally field grown, and one of them is wheat, the staff of life. When an ancient wheat plague, thought to be extinct, suddenly surfaces again, the world faces starvation. An extraordinary alliance of scientists, robot spies, desperate farmers and determined public servants organizes to fight it. And at their center is a young pop singer named Lizzie, who finds to her great astonishment that she is now the voice of the revolution. Praise for THE COMMONS"This is a great futuristic coming of age novel," says Prof. Emer. Richard Zeyen of the University of Minnesota. "A must read!""An intelligent and deeply pertinent ecological thriller...a bouncing, exciting adventure that is a pleasure to read as well as an intellectual treat!" writes Kate Onyett in The Future Fire.Kay MacDonald of Big Picture Agriculture writes: "If you enjoy sci-fi and agriculture too, and you think the current dominant system just might be sitting on the precipice of a dangerous fate, this book is for you. The writing is quick, playful, vibrant - chock full of surprising descriptive embellishments guaranteed to keep the reader entertained.""I loved this book! Every time I chuckled, which was often, I had to remind myself that Dworkin's agricultural dystopia is where we really seem to be heading. The science writing is astonishing!" says Dr. Roy Gould of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics."A paean to the power of song as a subversive, vital agent for change..." says Mel Marvin, Broadway composer of The Grinch.
About the Author: SUSAN DWORKIN wrote the New York Times best seller, The Nazi Officer's Wife, with the woman who lived it, the late Edith Hahn Beer. Her other books include the novel of love and larceny, Stolen Goods; Making Tootsie, the inside story of the classic film comedy with Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack; The Viking in the Wheat Field, about the crusading wheat collector, Dr. Bent Skovmand. She writes plays too. They tend to be funny. Some have music too. They include The Farm Bill, about a clerk at the Department of Agriculture who foments rebellion; The Miami Dig, a comedy about one man's attempt to keep his daughter-in-law from cleaning up his apartment; All Day Suckers, a comedy-with-music about our system of health care; The Baking Song, about a music historian and a deer expert who are trying to behave like lovers on a freezing night in Boston; and the award-winning musical, The Book of Candy, about a Long Island housewife who rescues her community and her own life by seeking inspiration from the Biblical story of Queen Esther. SUSAN lives in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. She is a much sought-after lecturer and loves to hear from readers. To reach her, write to her at her website www.susandworkin.com.