Eradication
A Fable

Quotes

“Excellent . . . Threaded throughout the novel — which Miles helpfully terms a ‘fable’ — is a patient, skillful reveal . . . a fable within the fable that sharpens and complicates these finely drawn moral dilemmas. . . . Miles considers the complicated ethics and logistics of eliminating an invasive species.”
—The New York Times

“An instant classic . . . A brilliant melding of environmental mourning and personal grief . . . The moment I finished, I was reminded of Emily Dickinson’s description of true poetry: ‘I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off.’ . . . Miles has an uncanny ability to create a terrifying kind of momentum, a swelling of alarm that propels the story from bumbling comedy to moral terror. . . . [Eradication is] basically, Hamlet but with goats.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“Urgent and lyrical . . . I closed [Eradication] and felt stirrings of Lord Of The Flies and The Old Man And The Sea.”
—Scott Simon, NPR Weekend Editon

“Like a great improvised jazz solo, Miles’ tale is both freewheeling and tightly contained. Complex, funny and sad, it is full of big ideas about planet, place and both social and ecological hierarchy. Just brilliant.”
—Marie Claire UK

“Gripping . . . Eradication: A Fable is [Miles’] best yet. . . . Only Miles could unspool this tale—one of love, grief, solitude, and a burning moral question.”
—Garden & Gun

“A slim novel [that] makes admirable use of that brevity to deliver a powerful and memorable reading experience.”
—Bookreporter

[Readers] can . . . be grateful for what [Miles has] delivered: a sharp, funny novel of ideas that bristles with rage at what humanity can wreak on the world.”
—BookBrowse

“[Eradication blew] the top of my head off. I thought it was incredibly powerful, timely, disturbing, funny. Everything just came together with an ending you just never forget. . . . It is just so concentrated and so focused, there isn't . . . a spare page.”
—Ron Charles, Diane Rehm's Substack Podcast

“Every single page comes alive. . . . I loved, absolutely loved, reading [Eradication].”
—Diane Rehm, Diane Rehm's Substack Podcast

“Claire Keegan, George Orwell, James Baldwin, Sigrid Nunez, and F. Scott Fitzgerald have all written breathtakingly brilliant short novels. Add to that list Jonathan Miles. . . . [Eradication is] among the most brilliant, beautiful short novels ever.”
—Chris Bohjalian, author of Midwives and The Jackal’s Mistress

“In Eradication, Jonathan Miles tackles the brutal paradoxes of ecological conservation with both unflinching clarity and comedic flair. When saving an imperilled Eden means eliminating [sacrificing?] one species — whose only crime is to 'refuse to stop living' — to protect dozens more, there are no easy answers. A deft, unsettling exploration of what it means to play God.”
—Maria Reva, author of Endling

“Beautifully weird, eerie, unexpected — a story for our times, and all powered by the writer’s tremendous narrative imagination.”
—Kevin Barry, author of The Heart in Winter and Night Boat to Tangier

“A work of genius. From the beginning Adi is an endearing castaway of sorts, marooned from his former life, well-employed but hopelessly ill-suited to the grim job at hand. But strangely the best possible witness to his own (our own) role in the natural and unnatural order, whatever that may be. What struck me is the way Miles can pivot seamlessly, symphonically, from a fist-gnawing comedy of errors to a heartbreaking requiem for a habitat, a world, a near-extinct Reed Warbler, a son, resolving into a shocking and defiant denouement. Eradication is a beautiful and devastating novel.”
—Luke Kennard, author of The Transition

“[Eradication] blew me out of my socks. . . . Short and powerful . . . The second I finished it, I immediately reread it.”
—Susan Casey, author of Voices in the Ocean

“Miles’ observational skills are on fine display—the offbeat premise is fully convincing. . . . An allegory about contempt for immigrants, our propensity for violence, our relationship to the environment (and the harm we bring upon it), our need for connection, and more . . . A stark, propulsive, and timely man-versus-nature tale.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Incisive . . . An excellent storyteller, Miles leavens the grim material with moments of dark comedy and shepherds the plot to a series of poignant revelations. . . . This one sneaks up on the reader.”
–Publishers Weekly

“Provocative . . . Miles’ captivating and entertaining novel poses awkward and thought-provoking questions about how to address the climate crisis.”
—Booklist

“[A] clever, innovative tale . . . Miles contrasts lush descriptions of the island setting with snippets of bleakly casual dialogue, channeling both realism and absurdity. . . . [Eradication] can be savored in just one or two sittings.”
—BookPage

“Miles's taut, powerful fable pits an everyman against seemingly insurmountable environmental and personal problems.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Concentrated [and] powerful . . . Eradication earns its claim as a modern classic through discipline. It is exact about what it depicts and honest about what it withholds. . . . The book feels finished in the deeper sense — a work readers will return to.”
—The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

“So much of Eradication is a novel of profound, truly human and humane questions. . . . Miles is masterful with his scenes and scene changes, with his characters — all a mix of serious and humorous, and the way he ensures humanity is not so much the center of things, but still a vital part of them nonetheless. . . . A grand-scale breakout novel.”
—The Clarion-Ledger

“[Eradication] resides comfortably at the nexus of nature-writing, philosophical allegory, and adventure story. . . . A brilliant meditation on the place of humanity in a violent world . . . Passages of extraordinary descriptive and lyrical power, some of the best nature writing I have read.”
—The Pittsburgh Review of Books