Earth Abides

The award-winning Earth Abides is one of the most influential science fiction novels of all time, a mix of dystopian horror and a literary exploration of loneliness. It remains a fresh, provocative--and all too relevant--story of apocalyptic pandemic, societal collapse, and rebirth. Includes an introduction from Kim Stanley Robinson!

“One of those novels so rare in our time, that the reader wishes would never end.”—The New Yorker

The cabin had always been a special retreat for Isherwood Williams, a haven from the demands of society. But one day while hiking, Ish is bitten by a rattlesnake, and the solitude he had so desired takes on dire new significance.

Sick for days—and often delirious—he wakes up to find two strangers peering in at him from the cabin door. Yet oddly, instead of offering help, the two run off as if terrified. Not long after, the coughing begins. Ish suffers chills and fever, and a measles-like rash on his skin. He has no way of knowing, but when he recovers, he will be one of the few people in the world to live through this peculiar and devastating malady.

Finally able to leave the cabin, Ish heads home, only to notice a pervasive strangeness almost immediately. No cars pass him on the road; the gas station not far from his cabin looks abandoned; and he was shocked to see the body of a man on the roadside near a small town.

Without a radio or phone, Ish has no idea of humanity’s abrupt demise. He has escaped death, but not the catastrophe. He is brutally alone, left to fend for himself and wondering how long it will be before all traces of civilization fade from Earth.