Things come undone with shocking rapidity when a flu pandemic ravages America.Cole, the son of liberal atheists and a smart, self-contained boy who loves to draw and counts explorer among his favorite words, narrates Nuñezs sixth gripping novel, one of many recent literary postapocalyptic tales.

Adept at matching psychological intricacy with edge-of-your-seat plots, the versatile Nuñez gracefully entwines a classic coming-of-age story with a terrifying medical catastrophe and a profound battle between secular and religious viewpoints.The pandemic orphans and nearly kills Cole, who ends up living with a kindhearted Evangelical pastor and his wife in Salvation City, a community preparing for the Rapture.Its all bible studies, guns, rapture children, and saved adults, including fiercely tattooed, one-eyed Mason.

As Cole emerges from a thicket of grief and the confusion of sexual awakening and recognizes and trusts his hunger for education and the larger world, however damaged and dangerous, Nuñez brilliantly contrasts epic social failure and tragedy with the unfurling of one promising life, reminding us that even in the worst of times, we seek coherence, discovery, and connection.