The dark side of humanity is explored in this electrifying science fiction thriller in which an epidemic virus terrorizes the earth. Causing its inhabitants to strike out on murderous rampages, the virus is caught through conversation and, once contracted, leads its host on a strange journey—into another world where the undead roam the streets of the smallest towns and largest cities, hungry for human flesh. Describing in chilling detail what it would be like if thousands suddenly caught such a virus and struck out on a mass, never-ending, cannibalistic spree, this terrifying narrative is perfect for those who are ready to explore their darkest secret imaginings through a sinister and compelling literary work of art. This new edition includes a new afterword on the making of the new motion picture. “An exquisite writer… [B]lissfully overarching descriptions and deadpan humour that ensure Burgess won’t be filed as a horror writer.” “Buy all his books.” “It may be one of the most important novels published this year.” “Pontypool Changes Everything is, quite literally, a hell of a read, enough to satisfy the most jaded appetite.”

In the end, the zombie apocalypse was nothing more than a waste disposal problem. Burn them in giant ovens? Bad optics. Bury them in landfill sites? The first attempt created acres of twitching, roiling mud. The acceptable answer is to jettison the millions of immortal automatons into orbit. Soon earth’s near space is a mesh of bodies interfering with the sunlight and having an effect on our minds that we never saw coming. Aggressive hypochondria, rampant depressive disorders, irresistible suicidal thought—resulting in teenage suicide cults, who want nothing more than to orbit the earth as living dead. Life on earth has slowly become not worth living. And death is no longer an escape. Horror can be a hard thing to recommend. What might be standard fare for one reader is far beyond the boundaries of another, and The n-Body Problem gleefully probes and pulls apart whatever comfort zones it encounters. With a fresh take on the undead genre and excellent execution—horror delivered with all the craft of literary fiction—the book is a finely wrought and exciting work, but one that has the capacity to disarm, disgust and profoundly distress. For a test of literary hard limits, and an exploration of the darker aspects of the human imagination, The n-Body Problem excels. Just as the post-cataclysmic world Burgess builds creates a crucible in which the human mind is melted down, the reading experience is similarly harrowing. It’s a novel that’s inflicted upon the reader