Girlfriend on Mars

Description

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 STEPHEN LEACOCK MEMORIAL MEDAL FOR HUMOUR*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE FOREST OF READING EVERGREEN AWARD*

A funny, poignant, and page-turning debut novel that skewers billionaire-funded space travel in a love story of interplanetary proportions.

Amber Kivinen is moving to Mars. Or at least, she will be if she wins a chance to join MarsNow. She and twenty-three reality TV contestants from around the world—including a handsome Israeli, an endearing fellow Canadian, and an assortment of science nerds and wannabe influencers—are competing for two seats on the first human-led mission to Mars, sponsored by billionaire Geoff Task. Meanwhile Kevin, Amber’s boyfriend of fourteen years, was content going nowhere until Amber left him—and their hydroponic weed business—behind. As he tends to the plants growing in their absurdly overpriced Vancouver basement apartment, Kevin tunes in to find out why the love of his life is so determined to leave the planet with somebody else.

An audaciously original debut from an “immensely talented writer” (Emily St. John Mandel), Girlfriend on Mars is at once a satirical indictment of our pursuit of fame and wealth amidst environmental crisis, and an exploration of humanity’s deepest longing, greatest quest, and most enduring cliché: love.*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 STEPHEN LEACOCK MEMORIAL MEDAL FOR HUMOUR* 
*LONGLISTED FOR THE FOREST OF READING EVERGREEN AWARD*
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 ALBERTA LITERARY AWARDS GEORGES BUGNET AWARD FOR FICTION*

One of CBC Books “Best Fiction of 2023”

Praise for Girlfriend on Mars:

“A sharp, funny take on capitalism, climate change, and our lifelong mission to be loved.”
—People

“Part disaffected-slacker rom-com, part social satire, part wistful end-of-the-world eulogy for ordinary, unscripted love. . . . Winsome, sweet, and apocalyptic―a perfect blend for the end of days.”
―Kirkus Reviews

“Willis keeps up a light tone and a fast pace even while getting deep into the science behind the Mars voyage, and her satire yields plenty of clever insights on celebrity culture. Readers are in for a treat.”
―Publishers Weekly

“Animal Farm. Catch-22. RoboCop. Starship Troopers. Deborah Willis’s debut novel, Girlfriend on Mars, counts itself among such triumphant satires. On the surface, the book is a biting send-up of celebrity culture, the internet age, and social media. Looking deeper, it’s a parable about the follies of misguided ambition, the danger of becoming captivated by progress for its own sake.”
―Literary Review of Canada

“Deborah Willis’ debut novel Girlfriend on Mars veers giddily on the brink between satire and tragedy, transporting us to places we never dreamed we’d go. . . . However fantastic, nutty and corrupt this all sounds, we are reminded that Musk and his fellow billionaires are already deep into space travel. And that reality, together with Willis’ witty writing, entangles us in the quagmire of comedy, love and fear portrayed in these pages. Sometimes it seems as if this Vancouver couple might represent one whole—albeit flawed—being, with Kevin representing feeling, and Amber, blind ambition, and the universal urge to flee town, or in this case, the planet, while earthly love takes a back seat.”  
—Toronto Star

“[A] story with the grip of a good drama series. . . . While the setup could have made for a breezy read, Willis cuts deep with insight. . . . Every detail is sharply placed by Willis, who has a scorching sense of humor and a soft spot for humanity down here on Earth.”
―Alex Beggs, New York Times Book Review

“Tender and funny, at once bizarre and achingly human, Girlfriend on Mars does the impossible and makes the journey to the Red Planet seem more believable than our own unsteady, beloved world. . . . A shimmering novel with a heart as vast as the cosmos itself.”
—Amanda Leduc, author of The Centaur’s Wife

“How did Deborah Willis manage to write about love, grief, corporate greed, climate change, and a reality show that sends two people to Mars with such grace and humour and compassion? Girlfriend on Mars blew my mind! This is one of the most original novels I’ve read in a long time.”
—Ann Hood, author of Fly Girl

“A compulsive blast of a read, Deborah Willis’s completely of-the-moment novel delivers a wry, witty, and ultimately moving commentary on celebrity culture and altruism, eco-posturing and sustainability, love and the relentless drive for more. Sharply observed, funny, and tender, Girlfriend on Mars will break your heart.”
—Jacqueline Baker, author of The Broken Hours

“Girlfriend on Mars is out of this world. Deborah Willis pushes the absurdly miserable, deeply addictive pleasure of reality TV to its only possible end, zooming from euphoria past satire to slam into real life and death. Prescient and poignant, Amber’s reality is an inch from coming true.”
—Marina Endicott, author of The Difference

“A perfectly observed satire that captures the absurdity—and beauty—of twenty-first century life. It reminded me of so many favorite novelists, from Margaret Atwood to Dave Eggers to Alexandra Kleeman. I loved it.”
—Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year

“Girlfriend on Mars is a deeply moving, deeply funny novel about love and loyalty in the midst of the paralyzing effects of eco-anxiety and the seductive toxicity of reality entertainment. While the girlfriend of the title reaches for Mars, her boyfriend reaches for another toke, but both essentially crave the same thing: a better, kinder, healthier world. This story is propulsive and surprising in the very best ways—Willis writes with a combination of pathos and humour that entrances and lights a way forward in this troubled time.”  
—Suzette Mayr, Scotiabank Giller Prize winning author of The Sleeping Car Porter

“Fleishman Is In Trouble, but in space” 
—Bobby Palmer, author of Isaac and the Egg

Praise for Deborah Willis and The Dark and Other Love Stories:
 
“Willis is an immensely talented writer, and [The Dark and Other Love Stories] is a thing of beauty: sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes funny, always sharply observed, elegant, and incisive.”
—Emily St. John Mandel, author of Sea of Tranquility
 
“The emotional range and depth of [Willis’s stories], the clarity and deftness, are astonishing.”
—Alice Munro

“Part disaffected-slacker rom-com, part social satire, part wistful end-of-the-world eulogy for ordinary, unscripted love… Winsome, sweet, and apocalyptic―a perfect blend for the end of days.”
―Kirkus Reviews
DEBORAH WILLIS’s last short story collection, The Dark and Other Love Stories, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her first book, Vanishing and Other Stories, was named one of The Globe and Mail’s Best Books of 2009, and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for fiction. Her work has also appeared in The Walrus, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Iowa Review, Lucky Peach, and Zoetrope. She has worked as a bookseller at Munro’s Books in Victoria, BC, as a technical writer, and as a writer-in-residence at Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver, MacEwan University, and the University of Calgary. Deborah currently works as an editor at Freehand Books and lives in Calgary with her partner and daughter.CA

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