by Jack London
First published 1986
Sixty years after a global pandemic wiped out humanity, an old man named Granser recounts the catastrophic plague to his savage, illiterate grandsons. The remnants of human civilization have collapsed into primitive tribal groups, with most technological knowledge lost. Granser represents the last living connection to the advanced society that existed before the disease, struggling to communicate complex history to children who cannot comprehend the world he describes. As he tells his story, the brutal new world surrounding him threatens to erase the last memories of human progress, with his grandchildren more interested in hunting and survival than understanding their past. The story becomes a stark confrontation between remembered civilization and brutal, immediate survival.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, post-apocalyptic, apocalyptic
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: California, Yukon
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
98 pages · Audio Cassette · Dercum Pr Audio
Content warnings: death, violence