In the aftermath of a devastating plague, a fearless young heroine embarks on a dangerous and surprising journey to save her world in this brilliantly inventive thriller.
In the ruins of a future America, fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star and her nomadic tribe live off the detritus of a crumbled civilization. Theirs is a world of children; before reaching the age of twenty, they all die of a strange disease they call Posies—a plague that has killed for generations. There is no medicine, no treatment; only the mysterious rumor of a cure.
When her brother begins showing signs of the disease, Ice Cream Star sets off on a bold journey to find this cure. Led by a stranger, a captured prisoner named Pasha who becomes her devoted protector and friend, Ice Cream Star plunges into the unknown, risking her freedom and ultimately her life. Traveling hundreds of miles across treacherous, unfamiliar territory, she will experience love, heartbreak, cruelty, terror, and betrayal, fighting to protect the only world she has ever known.
A postapocalyptic literary epic as imaginative as The Passage and as linguistically ambitious as Cloud Atlas, The Country of Ice Cream Star is a breathtaking work from a writer of rare and unconventional talent.
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“Narrator Lisa Renee Pitts narrates this post-apocalyptic novel with feeling…Listeners who can move past the dialect will find the story of children surviving at world’s end engaging as Pitts’ melodic voice, full of warm undertones, brings them closer to the emotional core of Ice Cream Star’s struggle for survival.”
— AudioFile
“Haunting and heartbreaking…an epic about love and hope that will inspire.”
— Vanity Fair“Makes The Hunger Games seem wimpy.”
— Wall Street Journal“Probably the next Divergent…An engrossing, thrilling read.”
— Self“The Country of Ice Cream Star is in many ways a classic story, craftily retold and made contemporary…It’s possible that this intrepid girl is the Frodo Baggins our times deserve.”
— New York Times Book Review“Full of supple metaphors and rhythmic lyricism.”
— Daily Telegraph (London)“What makes the novel so fascinating—and, yes, so challenging—is the language Newman has created.”
— Washington Post“A brave new/old world that delivers on multiple levels, especially Ice Cream Star’s alluring language.”
— Observer (London)“What sets The Country of Ice Cream Star apart from its rivals is the extraordinary, blistering insistence of its language…By the last page I was emotionally battered but euphoric.”
— Guardian (London)“Newman manages to imbue her heroine with a hope and resiliency that will surpass the ravages of a woebegone time.”
— Shelf Awareness“What sets the work apart is its unapologetic narrator, whose fantastically unbridled, wholly teenage point of view renders each page a pleasure to read.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)“This suspenseful, provocative tale is The Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies and The Walking Dead, only much, much better.”
— Booklist (starred review)“This literary dystopia inhabits a fully imagined, remarkably inventive universe…The patient reader will be intrigued by the poetic prose and captivated by the exploits of Ice Cream Star.”
— Library Journal“Newman’s story is inventive, her characters memorable…praiseworthy for its solid efforts at world building.”
— Kirkus ReviewsBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Sandra Newman is the author of several novels, including The Heavens, named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and The Country of Ice Cream Star, longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and NPR. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s and Granta, among other publications.
Lisa Renee Pitts is an award-winning actress in theater, television, and film, as well as an accomplished audiobook narrator and an AudioFile Earphones Award winner.