The Drought was initially published in 1964 as The Burning World. It was retitled as The Drought and published by Berkley Books in 1965. In the early 1960s, at the start of his career, author J.G. Ballard wrote a series of science fiction novels. Wanting to explore the possibilities for the future of the Earth and humanity, Ballard concocted different cataclysmic scenarios for each book.
The Drought is set, as its title suggests, during a drought of epic proportions which has pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. The novel follows a man named Ransom, who was a doctor before the drought started and the oceans started to recede as a result of industrial waste. Along with the few remaining survivors left on the Earth, Ransom must navigate a rapidly evolving world now covered with desert which has scarce amounts of water and other supplies.
The Drought was Ballard's third novel. Although he did not earn widespread popularity until his 1984 novel Empire of the Sun (which was later adapted into a wildly popular film in 1989 by Steven Spielberg), Ballard was well-known in literary circles. His work, including The Drought, was also very consistently well-reviewed. In their overwhelmingly positive review for the novel, NPR noted how prescient the novel was and wrote that "Leave it to Ballard, one of our bleakest writers, to offer surrender as a way to cope with catastrophe." In later reassessments of the novel, other reviewers have noted how relevant the novel still is to this day despite being published over 50 years ago.
