Twenty one people remain alive in a Swiss Hotel after multiple cities, including Washington, are destroyed by nuclear bombs. They have no means of communication with the outside world and no way of knowing if they are the only survivors. Then they discover the body of a girl and the post apocalyptic survivalist story also becomes a murder mystery. What more could you want?
One of my favourite things about this book are the subtle digs at Trump. Though he is never named, it is clear his recklessness and that of those who voted him in as President are responsible for the post nuclear mess at hand. The surviving hotel residents, from a variety of nations, are remarkably restrained, expressing their anger at the two Americans with only the occasional barbed comment. The protagonist, historian Jon Keller, looks at his fellow female American after she makes a particularly harsh observation and thinks “I am prepared to bet that she had voted for him.” When Jon thinks about before, he recognises “governments weren’t scared and people were nowhere near as scared as they should be, spending day after day at work talking about politicians we hated and battles we were losing, worrying about your future and whether your children would have one, and then it was all gone. Your family and your TV and your worries about the future and the future as you envisioned it and your children; all gone in the space of a day, or maybe longer, but no one could know that because the internet, that big window, was gone too.”
This is well written, terrifying, quite believable stuff. Makes you think you should pack a good torch and some batteries and tins of baked beans wherever you go. Also probably never go anywhere, just stay home in case, like Jon, you become separated from your loved ones by an ocean which nuclear fallout will prevent you from crossing almost permanently. So much more pleasant to become immersed in this very good book and live a post apocalyptic life vicariously from the safety of your armchair. And strive to remain not nearly as scared as we should be.
