Puma

<i>Puma</i> - disentangled from the three-part structure of <i>The End of the World News</i> and published here for the first time in its intended format - is Anthony Burgess's lost science fiction novel. Set some way into the future the story details the crushing of the planet Earth by a heavyweight intruder from a distant galaxy - the dreaded Puma. It is a visceral book about the end of history as man has known it. Despite its apocalyptic theme its earthquakes and tidal waves murder and madness <i>Puma</i> is a gloriously-comic novel steeped in the rich literary heritage of a world soon to be extinguished and celebrating humanity in all its squalid glory. In Burgess's hands this meditation on destruction mitigated by the hope of salvation for a select few becomes powerful exploration of friendship violence literature and science at the end of the world.