The Wind from Nowhere

The Wind From Nowhere
Cover of the first edition
AuthorJ. G. Ballard
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherBerkley Books
Publication date
1962
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)

The Wind from Nowhere is a science fiction novel by English author J. G. Ballard. Published in 1962, it was his debut novel. He had previously published only short stories.

The novel was the first of a series of Ballard novels dealing with scenarios of natural disaster. Here, civilization is reduced to ruins by prolonged worldwide hurricane force winds.

As an added dimension, Ballard explores the ways in which disaster and tragedy can bond people together in ways that no normal experiences ever could. That is another recurring theme in his works and makes one of its first appearances here. Some critics have suggested that his first four novels are based on elemental themes, showing global destruction by air, water, fire and earth.[1]

Ballard later dismissed the novel, written in ten days, as a "piece of hackwork",[2] referring instead to The Drowned World as his first real novel.[3]

  1. ^ Litt, Toby (22 January 2009). "The best of JG Ballard". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  2. ^ Stuart Pringle, JG Ballard (January 1975). "Interviews: 4 January 1975, part 2". Retrieved 5 August 2010.
  3. ^ Simon Sellars (10 October 2006). "The Wind From Nowhere (1961)". Ballardian. Archived from the original on 24 February 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2010.