Meridian 144
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
She is 50 feet underwater, scuba diving on an old sunken warship in the harbor of a Pacific island, which is about as far away as she can get from her unhappy divorce, a string of unfulfilling affairs and her persistent lack of conviction about her life. Kit Manning wonders if Tano Island will be for her a point of departure to somewhere better. Then everything turns a bright yellow, “the water like wrinkled amber foil.” Her new beau, an air force captain from the island’s base, swims down to her, frantic. “Fireball” he writes on a slate. The shock wave that follows is terrifying; it tips the sunken vessel over. When Kit surfaces alone, she returns to a devastated harbor and perhaps a decimated world. When she emerges from the sea, it is as if for the first time. Everything has changed. No one else can define her life anymore. . . or save it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Files's riveting debut novel begins with a bang, literally and figuratively. Kit Manning, an American woman teaching on a South Pacific island, is underwater, deep-sea diving, when ``everything suddenly flares bright yellow.'' It's a nuclear holocaust, and when Kit, protected by her oxygen tanks, resurfaces, she finds her world decimated. Carefully underplaying the story of the disaster, Files gives it psychological truth by introducing scenes from Kit's past, showing her adolescent struggles with an unfulfilled mother as well as her devastated marriage, and we see that even without the nuclear apocalypse, Kit has felt her life to be in ruins. The authenticity of the character development offsets the contrivances in the plot. (Kit's trusty dog, for example, has been protected from the bombs, and Kit eventually finds other survivors, some menacing, some friendly, each handily endowed with particular expertise.) Superb pacing maximizes the suspense, propelling the reader to discover exactly how Kit will resolve her memories and face an extraordinary future.
