Environmental Novels: An Annotated Bibliography

              Environmental Novels: An Annotated Bibliography
Compiled by Lauren Bordson, WMRC Library Intern and Laura L. Barnes, WMRC Librarian
Last updated: March 2007
Introduction
Environmental issues provide the backdrop for an array of novels, from suspense to romance to comedy. This bibliography includes books for young adults and adults. When looking at your library for fiction with environmental themes, some of the following subject headings may be helpful:
Environmental protection – Fiction
Hazardous wastes – Fiction
Industrial pollution – Fiction
Offenses against the environment – Fiction
Pollution – Fiction
If you have a favorite that is missing from this list, please e-mail us at library@wmrc.uiuc.edu and we’ll add it.
General Fiction
Abbey, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975.
Ex-Green Beret George Hayduke has returned from war to find his beloved southwestern desert threatened by industrial development. Joining with Bronx exile and feminist saboteur Bonnie Abzug, wilderness guide and outcast Mormon Seldom Seen Smith, and libertarian billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., Hayduke is ready to fight the power—taking on the strip miners, clear-cutters, and the highway, dam, and bridge builders who are threatening the natural habitat. Reissued as a Harper Perennial Modern Classic in December 2006.
Abbey, Edward. Hayduke Lives! New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1990.
Sequel to The Monkey Wrench Gang. George Hayduke was a wilderness avenger, industrial development saboteur, nighttime troublemaker, and barroom brawler. No wonder he was last seen clinging to a cliff, under fire from air and ground. Presumed dead by those who stalked him, whereabouts unknown to those who knew him, Hayduke lives -- and he does it with the same fiery vengeance and inspired scheming that made him the hero of eco-warriors everywhere. When he appears this time, it's to take on Goliath, the worlds' largest mobile earth-moving machine, now munching its way through the desert in search of toothsome minerals.
Amick, Steve. The Lake, The River, and the Other Lake. New York : Pantheon, 2005.
Welcome to the resort town of Weneshkeen, nestled along Michigan’s Gold Coast, where the sapphire-blue Lake Meenigeesis and the winding Oh-John-Ninny River lie within spitting distance of Lake Michigan. It is the summer of 2001, and Roger Drinkwater, a ‘Nam vet and lifelong resident, is plotting extra-legal revenge against the “idiot boy” jet-skiers polluting his beloved lake, even as he’s pursuing Janey Struska, the take-no-guff deputy sheriff.
Barbash, Tom. The Last Good Chance. New York: Picador USA, 2002.
Jack Lambeau is the prodigal son returned home to Lakeland, New York the Ivy-League educated architectural visionary brought home to reinvent the dying port town and smooth over its self imposed