Fascinated by caves and digging holes since childhood,Manfred discovers a path through to another realm via a Neolithic copper mineat Mount Gabriel in Schull, Ireland. The world of Hollow Earth, while noUtopia, is a sophisticated civilisation. Its genderless inhabitants arerespectful of their environment, religious and cultural differences areaccommodated without engendering hate or suspicion, and grain not missile silosare built. Yet Ari and Zest accompany Manfred back to the surface world. 'Comewith me and see my world.'
So begins an extraordinary adventure in which thethree wander the Earth like Virgil's Aeneas, Ari and Zest seeking re-entry totheir own world. The Hollow Earthers are shocked at the cruelty and lies of thesurface world, the dieback spreading through the forests. Yet they are seducedby the world's temptations.
Kinsella's parabledraws on a rich tradition of Hollow Earth literature and science fictionincluding Bradshaw's The Goddess ofAtvabar (1892).With strange beauty, its alluring trajectory vividly capturesour 21st century world in crisis. Like Manfred we are often blindly complicitin the earth's downfall.
'Happiness is under our feet.' sings the narrator in this passionate,layered and compelling new novel.
'Combining a twenty-first centurysense of planetary peril with a 1970s funkadelic vibe, Hollow Earth reaches to the extremes of our collective breath, itsalpha and omega...this is a novel of exacting self-scrutiny which alsomanages to be outrageous fun' - NicholasBirns
