First published 2021
Sarah meets tattoo artist Kurt at a Last Day BBQ in Boston, hoping their connection might bloom into something real before the world potentially ends. Every May 28, humanity observes an ancient ritual, gathering to mark what could be Earth's final day. Sarah, a young intellectual, pursues the older Kurt, but he remains consumed by guilt over the family he destroyed years earlier. Meanwhile, troubled Karen hears voices urging her to find her missing adoptive brother, while her friend Rosette has abandoned the Jehovah's Witnesses for a new religious community called the Last Kingdom on Earth. High above in orbit, three astronauts on the International Space Station watch the celebrations unfold below. American Bear, Russian Svec, and Japanese billionaire tourist Yui each wrestle with their own mortality as they observe their fragile planet from space. As this annual day of reckoning unfolds, these seven lives intersect in unexpected ways, each person grappling with love, loss, and the possibility of redemption when tomorrow might never come.
Genres: fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, apocalyptic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, redemption
Setting: Boston, Earth, International Space Station
Period: May 28
288 pages · Paperback · Random House Trade Paperbacks
Content warnings: depression