by TJ Klune
First published 2026
Don and Rodney have shared forty years as husbands, weathering love's peaks and valleys together. Now a wandering black hole speeds toward Earth, giving humanity one month before extinction. The couple leaves Maine for Washington State, carrying urgent unfinished business across a country facing its final days. Their headlights cut through empty highways under a fractured moon and shifting sky. Along the route, they encounter people who deny the approaching doom and others who welcome it. But they also find humans embracing their last weeks with spontaneous weddings, roaring fires, communal dinners, and unexpected friendships. Ball lightning flickers overhead as the cosmic threat draws closer. Don and Rodney reflect on four decades together, questioning whether their shared life measured up to their hopes. Did they burn brightly enough if nothing will survive the ashes?
Genres: fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, apocalyptic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: Earth, Maine, Washington State
Period: Final Days
176 pages · Hardcover · Tor Books