Next Stop
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
* WINNER OF THE EDWARD LEWIS WALLANT AWARD AND FINALIST FOR THE SAMI ROHR PRIZE *
A gripping and hauntingly prescient novel that explores the precariousness of Jewish American life after a black hole consumes Israel, setting off a chain of global anomalies plunging the world into a time of peril and miracles.
When a black hole suddenly consumes Israel and as mysterious anomalies spread across the globe, suddenly the world teeters on the brink of chaos. As antisemitic paranoia and violence escalate, Jewish citizens Ethan and Ella find themselves navigating a landscape fraught with danger and uncertainty.
Ella, a dedicated photojournalist, captures the shifting dynamics of their nameless American city, documenting the resilience and struggles of its Jewish residents. Some are drawn to the anomalies, disappearing into an abandoned subway system that seems to connect the world, while others form militias in the south. Yet, Ethan, Ella, and her young son Michael choose to remain, seeking solace in small joys amidst the hostility.
But then thousands of commercial planes vanish from the sky. Air travel stops. Borders close. Refugees pour into the capital. Eventually all Jews in the city are forced to relocate to the Pale, an area sandwiched between a park and a river. There, under the watchful eye of border guards, drones, and robotic dogs, they form a fragile new society.
Suspenseful, thought-provoking, and brilliantly conceived, Next Stop is a masterful blend of speculative fiction and family drama. Invoking biblical and historical themes in a world eerily similar to our own, it is a profound exploration of memory, identity, and survival.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Resnick debuts with a striking and unabashedly political fable set in an alternate present where the nation of Israel vanishes into a black hole. The story follows tech writer Ethan Block and magazine photographer Ella Halperin, who are raising Ella's young son, Michael, in an unnamed city loosely modeled on New York, where residents are dismayed by the First Event: Israel's disappearance. As other, smaller black holes form in cities around the world, "sucking in birds, clouds, light, sounds, Jews," some Jewish people feel a strong "pull" toward them, believing the holes provide an escape from persecution. Their migration to the holes causes others to scapegoat Jews for the black holes' existence. With antisemitism on the rise, Ethan and Ella are forced into a ghetto called "the Pale," where they try to get on with their lives ("No one talked much about what they saw or did not see"), until encroaching civil unrest compels them to make an irreversible decision for their and Michael's safety. Resnick skillfully uses the raw materials of postapocalyptic fiction and speaks lucidly to his Jewish characters' legacy of displacement. This timely tale will appeal to fans of speculative fantasies by Michael Chabon and Lavie Tidhar.
