The Electric Kingdom
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A genre-smashing story of survival, hope and love amid a ravaged earth.
A deadly flu has swept the globe, leaving a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, who are on a journey devised by Nico’s father to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, who knows almost nothing of the world outside the old abandoned cinema he was raised in; and the enigmatic Deliverer, who lives Life after Life in an attempt to put the world back together.
David Arnold lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his (lovely) wife and (inquisitive) son. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland, Kids of Appetite and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik, which has been optioned for film by Paramount. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages.
'Wholly enjoyable. . . There is no shortage of humor in Mim’s musings, interspersed with tender scenes and a few heart-pounding surprises. Mim’s triumphant evolution is well worth the journey.' Publishers Weekly on Mosquitoland (starred review)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With a haunting, deliberately paced tale of postapocalyptic survival, Arnold (Mosquitoland) creates a devastated world held together by myth and memory. Years after most of humankind is wiped out by swarms of Flu-flies—genetically modified honeybees that devour humans and leave behind a deadly Fly Flu—the remaining survivors eke out a tentative existence in the Northeast U.S. Nico, 18, is sent by her science-minded father in search of a portal that could grant her a better life. Twelve-year-old Kit, raised in an abandoned movie theater, sets forth to locate a supposed safe zone situated on a cluster of islands. And the enigmatic Deliverer, who has spent dozens of lives attempting to influence events, watches over them both while pursuing a mysterious agenda. As their paths converge, the disparate protagonists discover secret connections that bind them. The slow-burning story unfolds opaquely—Arnold suggests, rather than explains, certain details about the world, focusing instead on how his intertwining characters, clearly wrought and informed by story and speculation, face a changing landscape. Ages 12–up.
