num_pages: 210
description: J. G. Ballard's fourth novel, which established his reputation as a writer of extraordinary talent and imaginative powers, tells the story of a physician specializing in the treatment of leprosy who is invited to a small outpost in the interior of Africa. Finding the roadways blocked, he takes to the river, and embarks on a frightening journey through a strange petrified forest whose area expands daily, affecting not only the physical environment but also its inhabitants.Through a 'leaking' of time, the West African jungle starts to crystallize. Trees are metamorphosed into enormous jewels. Crocodiles encased in second glittering skins lurch down the river. Pythons with huge blind gemstone eyes rear in heraldic poses.Fearing this transformation as a herald of the apocalypse, most flee the area in terror, afraid to face a catastrophe they cannot understand. But some, dazzled and strangely entranced, remain to drift through this dreamworld forest. Travelling through this gilded land, the doctor tries to resist its strange allure, while a tribe of lepers search for Paradise…
language: English
title: The Crystal World
titlecomplete: The Crystal World
genres: Dystopia, Novels, Science Fiction, Apocalyptic, Post Apocalyptic, Literature, Fantasy, British Literature, Fiction, Speculative Fiction
ratings_count: 4310
awards: awardedAt: 28800000
name: Seiun Award 星雲賞
category: Best Foreign Novel
publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux