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The Girl in the Road

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The Girl in the Road
First edition
AuthorMonica Byrne
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherCrown Publishing Group
Publication date
May 20, 2014
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages336 (hardback)
ISBN978-0804138840

The Girl in the Road is a 2014 science fiction novel by Monica Byrne. It tracks two stories in parallel: one of a primary protagonist, Meena, as she crosses a floating energy-harvesting bridge that spans the Arabian Sea from India to Djibouti some time in the 2060s, and another of the youth and young adulthood of Mariama, who travels several decades earlier from Western Africa to Ethiopia.[1][2]

The Girl in the Road is Byrne's debut novel.[3] The Wall Street Journal described it as "a new sensation, a real achievement",[4] while NPR criticized it, saying "the pulpiest of genre mysteries are shoved into the narrative, only to be neglected or resolved anti-climactically" and that "the result is a ragged patchwork of concepts, interconnections and intriguing possibilities, many of which wind up as red herrings."[5] It shared the 2014 James Tiptree, Jr. Award with Jo Walton's My Real Children.[6] It was also a finalist for the UK's Kitschies Golden Tentacle award for debut speculative fiction novel.[7]

In August 2015, a German translation was published under the title Die Brücke (The Bridge).[8]

References

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  1. ^ Hubble, Nick (9 May 2014). "A Ceaseless Storm of Matter and Energy". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  2. ^ Heller, Jason (22 May 2014). "'Girl In The Road' Is A Dizzying Journey". NPR. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  3. ^ Calder, Jeff (25 July 2014). "Dual quests fuel futuristic 'Girl in the Road'". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  4. ^ "Book Review: 'The Girl in the Road' by Monica Byrne". Wall Street Journal.
  5. ^ Heller, Jason. "'Girl In The Road' Is A Dizzying Journey". NPR.
  6. ^ "2014 Tiptree Award Winners! And more". James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council. 24 February 2010. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  7. ^ "Golden Tentacle (Debut)". The Kitschies. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  8. ^ Byrne, Monica (12 August 2015). "Once more, AUF DEUTSCH". Retrieved 14 August 2015.