The Way
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The world has been ravaged by a lethal virus and, with few exceptions, only the young have survived. Cities have been destroyed, and the natural world has reclaimed the landscape in surprising ways, with herds of wild camels roaming the American West and crocodiles that glow neon green lurking in the rivers.
Against this perilous backdrop, Will Collins, the de facto caretaker of a Buddhist monastery in Colorado, receives an urgent and mysterious request: to deliver a potential cure to a scientist in what was once California. So Will sets out, haunted by dreams of the woman he once loved, in a rusted-out pickup pulled by two mules. A menacing thug is on his tail. Armed militias patrol the roads. And the only way he’ll make it is with the help of a clever raven, an opinionated cat and a tough teenage girl who has learned to survive on her own.
A highly original contribution to the canon of dystopian literature, The Way is a thrilling and imaginative novel, full of warmth, wisdom and surprises that reflect our world in unsettling, uncanny and even hopeful ways.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Groner (Exiles) sets this clever postapocalyptic novel in the aftermath of a deadly near-future avian flu epidemic. By 2048, 80% of the world's population has been decimated, causing civilization to collapse into isolated communities as nature runs wild. Will Collins, caretaker at a Buddhist retreat in Colorado, still mourns the lover who died from the virus years earlier. When a friend asks him to deliver a chemical compound to California, where scientists are working on a cure for the mysterious Disease X, which threatens madness and death for survivors in their late 30s and older, he obliges. Will travels west in a rusted-out pickup truck pulled by two mules, accompanied by a raven and a cat, both preternaturally communicative. Along the way, he picks up a 14-year-old orphan girl, who turns out to be a crack shot—a good thing, too, considering Will is being pursued by a gang of neo-Nazis who want the cure for themselves. A series of last-minute plot twists feels a bit contrived, but Groner paints a persuasive picture of his dystopian world, peopled with strong characters and driven by cinematic action. This reinvigorates an overworked genre.
