Staff Pick
As the Doomsday Clock inches towards midnight, we are forced to consider what the end of the world will look like. For Jon it arrives as a series of increasingly terrifying news alerts: there have been multiple nuclear attacks around the world, starting with Washington, DC. Just prior to this he was eating breakfast at a hotel in Switzerland, not thinking about anything in particular, completely unaware of what was to come — isn’t that always the way it goes? Panic erupts as the other guests frantically try to reach loved ones last seen in places that no longer exist. Most leave, some stay, and in the ensuing chaos, a little girl is murdered. And that’s just where the story begins. What follows is a layered read, part murder mystery, part post-apocalyptic survival story, part exploration of the terrible freedoms afforded by catastrophe. How much of who we are depends on external factors? Without laws or anything resembling a formal society, who would you be? Eerily prescient and entirely unforgettable, The Last is a painfully exquisite meditation on humanity and character. Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
For fans of high-concept thrillers such as Annihilation and The Girl with All the Gifts, this breathtaking dystopian psychological thriller follows an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel as the world descends into nuclear war--along with twenty other survivors--who becomes obsessed with identifying a murderer in their midst after the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel's water tanks. Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife's text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he's waiting in the lobby of the L'Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That's all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black--and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.
Now, two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Those who can't bear to stay commit suicide or wander off into the woods. Jon and the others try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when the water pressure disappears, and Jon and a crew of survivors investigate the hotel's water tanks, they are shocked to discover the body of a young girl.
As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the little girl as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?