Camp Zero

America, 2049: Summer temperatures are intolerably high, the fossil fuel industry has shut down, and humans are implanted with a 'Flick' at birth, which allows them to remain perpetually online. The wealthy live in the newly created Floating City off the coast, while people on the mainland struggle to get by. For Rose, a job as a hostess in the city's elite club feels like her best hope for a better future.

At a Cold War-era research station, a group of highly trained women with the code name White Alice are engaged in climate surveillance. But the terms of their employment become increasingly uncertain.

And in a former oil town in northern Canada called Dominion Lake, a camp is being built-Camp Zero. A rare source of fresh, clean air and cooler temperatures, it will be the beginning of a new community and a new way of life. Grant believes it will be the perfect place to atone for his family's dark legacy.

Everyone has an agenda. So who can you trust? Could falling in love be most the radical act of all?

Thrilling, immersive and disturbingly prescient, Camp Zero is about the world we've built and where we go from here.

“Camp Zero is a sui generis novel, boldly imagined, intricately designed, and convincingly detailed . Though set in the near future, it resonates with a palpable sense of reality and with the deep insights into some dimensions of the human condition, such as migrations, the burden of the past, environmental destruction, gender inequality, self-recreation. Page by page, the prose shines with subtle verbal artistry. This is a groundbreaking literary work. - Ha Jin”

This is a distinctive, involving slice of cli-fi about the power of solidarity that illustrates how closely utopias and their opposites are related Daily Mail
A gripping work of speculative climate fiction . . . page-turning feminist mystery-thriller Observer
Camp Zero is a sui generis novel, boldly imagined, intricately designed, and convincingly detailed. Though set in the near future, it resonates with a palpable sense of reality and with the deep insights into some dimensions of the human condition, such as migrations, the burden of the past, environmental destruction, gender inequality, self-recreation. Page by page, the prose shines with subtle verbal artistry. This is a groundbreaking literary work. -- Ha Jin
Michelle Sterling has written a big, gutsy, and clear-eyed novel of the near future that neither lurches with dread nor swoons with false hope: it's a cold, hungry adventure story about the power of choice and the strength of solidarity. You won't be able to put it down. -- Sean Michaels, Giller-Prize winning author of Us Conductors
In an equally tantalizing and terrifying tour de force, Michelle Min Sterling boldly remixes the realities of our present world, the danger we are in, and the fates we have settled for through a mesmerizing story of loyalty, deception, and ultimately love. Camp Zero's dark twists and bright turns left me breathless, hopeful, furious, and emboldened until the very end -- Nancy Jooyoun Kim, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Story of Mina Lee
Sterling's stunning debut offers a glimpse into a climate change-ravaged future in which resources diminish quickly and new frontiers are hard to find . . . this cleverly constructed climate fiction mystery feels like one many readers could see within their lifetimes. This should earn a place on shelves alongside Station Eleven and Annihilation Publishers Weekly
CAMP ZERO is the thrilling, urgent feminist climate fiction that the world needs. With extraordinary world-building, captivating characters, and sharp commentary on climate change, technology, colonialism, capitalism, and the patriarchy, Michelle Min Sterling's remarkable debut delivers its big ideas with suspense, endlessly surprising twists, and abundant heart -- JESSAMINE CHAN, NYT bestselling author of THE SCHOOL FOR BAD MOTHERS
Action-packed . . . It's about how women can come together to change the world . . . incredible -- Read with Jenna Today
The different narratives come together in a surprising and satisfying way in this absorbing novel Guardian
A gripping story about survival, with compelling characters and frightening plot twists that will keep you riveted Real Simple

Michelle Sterling was born in British Columbia, Canada, and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she teaches literature and writing at Berklee College of Music. Camp Zero is her first novel.

'A cold, hungry adventure story about the power of choice and the strength of solidarity' SEAN MICHAELS America, 2049: Summer temperatures are intolerably high, the fossil fuel industry has shut down, and humans are implanted with a 'Flick' at birth, which allows them to remain perpetually online. The wealthy live in the newly created Floating City off the coast, while people on the mainland struggle to get by. For Rose, a job as a hostess in the city's elite club, feels like her best hope for a better future. At a Cold War-era research station, a group of highly-trained women with the code-name White Alice are engaged in climate surveillance. But the terms of their employment become increasingly uncertain. And in a former oil town in northern Canada called Dominion Lake, a camp is being built-Camp Zero. A rare source of fresh, clean air and cooler temperatures, it will be the beginning of a new community and a new way of life. Grant believes it will be the perfect place to atone for his family's dark legacy. Everyone has an agenda. So who can you trust? Could falling in love be most the radical act of all? Thrilling, immersive and disturbingly prescient Camp Zero is about the world we've built and where we go from here. John Murray Press' lead fiction title for 2023

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