The End of the Road

I hope your thoughts do not normally dwell on how we will survive if there is ever a huge disaster that wipes out the majority of the world’s population, but the well-written, post-apocalyptic novels below will keep your attention. Unlike most post-apocalyptic stories, these novels were not written by science fiction authors.

Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier 2006
The City is inhabited by those who have departed Earth but are still remembered by the living. They will reside in this afterlife until they are completely forgotten. But the City is shrinking, and the residents are leaving because of a deadly virus that has struck the inhabitants of Earth.

Children’s Hospital by Chris Adrian 2006
After the earth is flooded below seven miles of water, only a hospital is preserved which is presided over by four angels.


Into the Forest by Jean Hagland 1996
Two sisters, alone in the Northern California forest, face the challenges of survival after a war has brought about the collapse of industrialized America.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 2003
An evocative, intriguing tale on the bleak future of the human race that takes the reader back and forth between a post-apocalyptic world and the earlier events that led to the disaster.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2006
A father and son try to survive starvation, the elements, and cannibals in a postapocalyptic America

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham 2005
Brilliantly conceived, empathetic book includes three novellas separated in time: the1890s, the present, and finally 150 years in the future .