Category: Fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345370880
Pub. Date: 1990
Date Read: June 2008
“We have over six thousand books at Amarna now. Of course, it’s a pitiful fraction of human knowledge. But it’s all we have. I don’t believe they’re the only books left in the world, just as I don’t believe we’re the only survivors, but I keep thinking maybe we have the only existing copies of some books. They must be preserved if it’s remotely possible. Mary, what else can I do for humankind.”
In the near future, the world has been ravaged by a nuclear war and any survivors left struggle each and every day to find food, to stay safe to somehow make a new civilization. Mary Hope and Rachel Morrow are two survivors. They have lost everything but at least found each other and slowly they eek out an existence with the hope of one day finding other survivors.
After many years they finally meet another survivor but meeting him will have a profound effect on Mary’s life. She feels it is her wish and her duty to help rebuild civilization but at what cost to her set of beliefs and morals?
The story of these two women is recounted by Mary herself as she tries to teach a young boy about what it is to be a friend, an artist, and a survivor. Mary and Rachel’s friendship is beautifully described. These two women clearly try to live a life of kindness towards each other and the world even as they grieve for what they and the world has lost.
This is a thought-provoking novel that will have you thinking about our world today and where it is headed.