Before This Is Over
-
-
2.3 • 3 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
"A gripping look at the way humanity handles crisis." --Newsweek
In the midst of a devastating epidemic, how far will a desperate mother go to keep her loved ones safe?
There is a deadly virus spreading around the world. At first it is a distant alarm bell in the background of Hannah's comfortable suburban life. Then suddenly, it has arrived on the doorstep.
The quarantine traps Hannah, her husband, and their young sons in their home and forces them to rely on their own resourcefulness as water and power supplies are cut, food reserves dwindle, and their formerly idyllic backyard and quiet street become battlefields. Hannah is convinced that if she keeps her wits about her, she can protect her family, even as one threat after another looms just on the other side of the door.
Compulsively readable and deeply personal, Before This Is Over forces us to grapple with disaster through the eyes of an ordinary woman. How far will she go to keep her loved ones safe?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hannah Halloran, the heroine of Australian author Hickie's tense debut, worries that an insidious epidemic, which originated in Asia, has invaded her suburban Australian town. She begins stockpiling food and keeping her sons, teenage Zac and five-year-old Oscar, home from school. Hannah's obsession with storing food and avoiding the public intensifies when the first cases are rumored to have occurred in a nearby town. Her husband, Sean, and her employer think she's overreacting. When neighbors begin to die, others no longer doubt her. Under these circumstances, how does one cope with entertaining an active child or feeding a growing, whiny teenager, who eats as if supermarkets are still open and refuses to understand why he can't use the Internet? Neighbors turning on neighbors is expected, but society is beyond broken when a family turns on itself. Hickie realistically depicts how isolation and the threat of disease affect one family, especially when electricity, water, and other services break down.
Customer Reviews
Before this is over
This has got to be the worst book I have ever read.