First published 2026
Natalie stands in rural Tennessee, part of the new Free American Republic, while her husband Asher remains in San Francisco in what's left of the United States. Their marriage fractured along the same lines that split the country after civil war tore through the 2030s. Twenty-three years of marriage couldn't bridge their different views of America or their AI-dominated world of 2045. Now they face divorce proceedings across national borders. But their seventeen-year-old needs to visit colleges, forcing the estranged couple back together for one final road trip. They drive through a transformed American landscape, marked by terrorist attacks and technological upheaval, confronting both their personal failures and their nation's collapse. The journey forces them to ask the same question America itself must answer: when something breaks this badly, can it ever be repaired? Their family's future hangs in the balance as they navigate checkpoints, changed cities, and the wreckage of their shared past.
Genres: dystopia, literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotionally-complex, introspective, melancholic, tense, thought-provoking
Tropes: estranged-couple, family-conflict, forced-proximity, journey-of-self-discovery
Setting: Rural Tennessee, Free American Republic, San Francisco, United States, American landscape
Period: 2030s, 2045
576 pages · Hardcover · Random House
Content warnings: death, violence, war