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We all used to be something else, and we will all be something new again in the worlds to come.
Written in an effort to ward off existential dread, and to find new understandings and consolations for those similarly afflicted, The Chthonic Cycle is an eccentric and brilliantly curated tour through time, in which fascinating objects glint and spark and the transience of humanity flickers.
At the heart of Una Cruickshank’s debut are Earth’s interlocking cycles of death and reuse. The blood of a billion-year-old tree emerges from the sea as a drop of amber; 4,756,940 pieces of Lego float towards the Cornish Peninsula; a giant squid’s beak passes through a whale’s intestines into bottles of Chanel No. 5. The violence of colonisation underpins some of the transformations illuminated here, as we follow wave after wave of ruin and remaking.
This is a rare kind of writing, both galaxy-sweeping and microscopically specific. The Chthonic Cycle reminds us to be chastened and scared by our world – its mind-bending age, the insane complexity of its systems, the violent upheavals and mass extinctions – as well as to be awed.
'This is such beautiful writing – clever, lyrical, sensitive to source. Cruickshank's breadth is oceanic without getting bogged down. She is her own unique voice.' —Andrew Paul Wood, NZ Listener
'I have been incredibly moved by Una’s book. It has shifted my mind and my world. It offers such an exciting opportunity to explore a new perspective of our current moment.' —Pip Adam, Better Off Read
'A warmly obsessive debut . . . rousing, inquisitive, challenging . . . Truly admirable.' —Theo McDonald, North & South
'Rich and lyrical, gorgeous and astonishing, scientific and poetic — this stunning collection has left me smiling, looking afresh at the world. I loved this book for its intensity and curiosity and its vivid language.' —Rebecca Priestley, author of End Times and 15 Million Years in Antarctica
‘Una Cruickshank reaches across the history of life on Earth to hold a mirror up to our lives. With exacting precision, charisma and curiosity, The Chthonic Cycle casts light on the links between everything in the vast web of earthly delights, putting each of our lives in the perspective of deep time and the ever-present cycles of evolution and extinction. Every page of this rich and illuminating debut is a feast.’ —Ash Davida Jane, author of How to Live with Mammals
Una Cruickshank has an MA in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, and another earlier MA that she doesn’t talk about as much. She was born in Tamaki Mākaurau Auckland and now lives in Pōneke Wellington. She works at an audiovisual archive and haunts the city’s cinemas and libraries, and that one karaoke place that smells like boiled meat. The Chthonic Cycle is her first book.
Cover artwork: Sasha Francis (Instagram: @_sashafrancis)
