’A contemporary masterpiece’GUARDIAN‘Creepy and fascinating’ STEPHEN KING‘A psycho-geograpical tour de force’FINANCIAL TIMESTHE BASIS FOR A MAJOR MOTION PICTUREA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST NOVELWith an introduction by Karen Joy FowlerIn Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s now-classic Southern Reach series, Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades and nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilisation. Expedition after expedition into Area X has failed to uncover its mysteries and the true nature of its danger to the world.Now a twelfth expedition makes the attempt, a group of four women: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist and the narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X.A harrowing cosmic mystery at the vanguard of eco-fiction, Annihilation has only become more pertinent to our reality ten years after its first publication.'Powerful and echoing' NEW STATESMAN'Genuinely potent and dream-haunting' GUARDIAN‘Arresting, unsettling, and unforgettable’NEW YORKER