Mullen, Thomas. The Last Town on Earth. New York: Random House. 2006. Print.
First Sentences:
Description:
While the deadly 1918 Spanish Influenza swept the world, in some places entire towns tried to isolate themselves from outsiders to protect themselves from infection. Thomas Mullen, author of the novel The Last Town on Earth, imagines one such barricaded city and what it would it be like to live during these frightening times.
Mullen's fictionalized town, Commonwealth, is a remote mill town in Washington. Its residents put up barriers on the only road into their town and then armed ordinary citizens to act as guards to turn away any person who wanders too near their borders. But when a starving World War I soldier is shot climbing over the barrier, the town must face the implications of their decisions.
And the fear, isolation, and accusations don't stop with that incident. Commonwealth society begins to crumble under the suspicions of each other and their fear of the influenza. Several Commonwealth citizens are locked up to ensure the health of the majority. But slowly some begin to wonder whether such measures are actually effective and at what cost they have to their town, neighbors, and personal code?
Mullen presents this tale of a seemingly good idea, created and carried out by ordinary, moral people, that spirals to consequences no one imagined, forcing decisions that will haunt everyone involved. An imaginative yet chillingly realistic tale that grips you immediately and hold on to the final pages.
The sun poked out briefly, evidence of a universe above them, of watchful things -- planets and stars and vast galaxies of infinite knowledge -- and just as suddenly it retreated behind the clouds
Description:
While the deadly 1918 Spanish Influenza swept the world, in some places entire towns tried to isolate themselves from outsiders to protect themselves from infection. Thomas Mullen, author of the novel The Last Town on Earth, imagines one such barricaded city and what it would it be like to live during these frightening times.
Mullen's fictionalized town, Commonwealth, is a remote mill town in Washington. Its residents put up barriers on the only road into their town and then armed ordinary citizens to act as guards to turn away any person who wanders too near their borders. But when a starving World War I soldier is shot climbing over the barrier, the town must face the implications of their decisions.
And the fear, isolation, and accusations don't stop with that incident. Commonwealth society begins to crumble under the suspicions of each other and their fear of the influenza. Several Commonwealth citizens are locked up to ensure the health of the majority. But slowly some begin to wonder whether such measures are actually effective and at what cost they have to their town, neighbors, and personal code?
Mullen presents this tale of a seemingly good idea, created and carried out by ordinary, moral people, that spirals to consequences no one imagined, forcing decisions that will haunt everyone involved. An imaginative yet chillingly realistic tale that grips you immediately and hold on to the final pages.
Happy reading.
Fred
Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Saramago, Jose. Blindness
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Saramago, Jose. Blindness
Inexplicably, almost an entire town suddenly goes blind. The survival of ordinary people struggling to live without sight and the social interaction between the still sighted people and the blind is chilling.
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