THIRST, a novel of the hydrosphere

291pp., paperback, Reprint, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, (2024) 2025

ISBN: 9781780221083

A novel set in 1939 on Namibia's Skeleton Coast. Cat Brosnan, a young Irish scientist, travels to the Namibian desert to find out what happened to her mother, who, six years earlier, disappeared while searching for an aquifer believed to be hidden beneath the sand. But she’s not the only one looking for this precious water source: mining corporations and foreign governments want it too, as well as those who need it just to survive.

"An entertaining yarn that brings a touch of Rider Haggard to modern eco-politics" Max Davidson, Mail on Sunday

Giles Foden (b. 1967) was an editor and writer on the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian, and his writing has been published in Granta, Vogue, Esquire, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveller, where he is a contributing editor. His fiction includes Freight Dogs, The Last King of Scotland, Ladysmith, Zanzibar and Turbulence.