'Ransom climbed up on to the jetty and gazed down at the houseboat, stranded with all his hopes on the bleached shore. He brushed the dust off his sleeves and rousers, looking out at the mud flats rising from the centre of the lake. At his feet the swollen body of the dog was blurred by the heat, and for a moment the whole landscape seemed to be covered with corpses. The dead fish rotated slowly from their hooks in the drying sheds, and a spasm of dizziness made Ransom retch emptily . . .'
This book describes a world without rain, full of haunting landscapes, disaster and a dreamlike atmosphere.