The End of the World Running Club

Walker’s ambitious debut novel offers a gripping portrayal of a postapocalyptic world. This type of end-of-the-world story has been told before, but rarely with the intensity and believability that Walker creates here. Edgar Hill, a lazy, unhappy man, lives with his family in Edinburgh, Scotland, when an asteroid barrage strikes Earth, destroying modern civilization. Unprepared physically or mentally for the widespread death and destruction that follows, Edgar must finally face his responsibilities as a husband and father, and he knows he won’t measure up. Clustered with a few surviving civilians and soldiers, Edgar is separated from his family when they are evacuated by a rescue helicopter, leaving Edgar and six others behind. Without hope of rescue, the six men and one woman flee to the south, across a landscape of chaos and despair. Edgar and the others must run to get to Cornwall, 450 miles away, chasing a rumor of sanctuary and seaborne evacuation, pursued by killers and gangs of murderous survivors driven mad by desperation and hopeless resignation. Edgar has never run in his life, but is determined to reunite with his family, and so sets a remarkable example of endurance and self-sacrifice for the others. This is a wholly convincing and exciting novel. (Sept.)