A Friend of the Earth — T.C. Boyle / T. Coraghessan Boyle

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.