The Rain Artist

<p>In a future where rain is a luxury enjoyed exclusively by the ultra-rich the world's only umbrella-maker is framed for the high-profile murder of the quadrillionaire patriarch who controls the earth's last natural resources. Beautiful and horrific <em>The Rain Artist</em> is pitched as <em>Succession</em> meets <em>The Fifth Element</em> and asks the question of how art and artists can thrive under commercialized capitalism.</p><p><em>The Rain Artist</em> started as a short story published in <em>O: The Oprah Magazine</em> and was included as a notable story in the <em>Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022</em> anthology by editors Rebecca Roanhorse and John Joseph Adams. The novel is the first in a series set in the immediate future of our mutating planet.</p><p><br></p><p>About the author: Claire Rudy Foster's debut short story collection <em>Shine of the Ever</em> was named as one of the best LGBTQ books of the year by <em>O: The Oprah Magazine</em> and was a finalist for the Foreword INDIE Awards. The book was selected for the ALA 2021 Over the Rainbow Fiction and Poetry Longlist.</p><p><br></p><p>Foster's essays and fiction have appeared in many places including <em>The New York Times</em> <em>Black Static Lit Hub</em> <em>The Guardian</em> <em>Mic</em> <em>McSweeney's</em> and <em>Catapult</em>. Their writing has been recognized with four Pushcart Prize nominations. Foster is the co-writer of the bestselling nonfiction book <em>Unsettled: How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis</em> which was named the best bankruptcy book in the world and one of Ralph Nader's top picks of the year.</p><p><br></p><p><em style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>The Rain Artist</em><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> is an evocative feast of all-too relevant eco and dystopian horror backdropped by smart compelling storytelling that echoes the literary odyssey's of Ursula K. Le Guin's </span><em style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>The Word for World is Forest</em><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)> and Margaret Atwood's </span><em style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Oryx and Crake</em><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>. </span><strong style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>Remarkable characters disturbing and perpetually beautiful</strong><span style=color: rgba(34 34 34 1)>. Celine Broussard is about to become everybody's new favorite heroine. C. R. Foster's brilliant award-winning writing shines brightest in this apocalyptic page-turning novel.</span> -Kayli Scholz author of <em>Saint Grit</em></p><p><br></p><p>A deluge of talent & surrealism engulfs the senses in <em>The Rain Artist</em>. Part Le Guin part Mary Shelley it is <strong>a moving picture guiding you through its lavish rooms</strong>. -Ingrid M. Calderon-Collins poet and publisher Resurrection Press</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Smart haunting and exceptional</strong> ... The characters in Claire Rudy Foster's fiction are all achingly lonely and the victims of human error yes-but they're also miracles of endurance whose devastations large and small illuminate the better parts of ourselves. -Benjamin Percy author of <em>The Dark Net</em> <em>The Dead Lands</em> <em>Red Moon</em> and <em>The Wilding</em></p><p><br></p><p>... an <strong>otherworldly</strong> Atwood-esque dystopia. -Michelle Hart Books Editor <em>O: The Oprah Magazine</em></p>