The lightest object in the universe

Kimi Eisele

Book - 2019

What if the end times allowed people to see and build the world anew? This is the landscape that Kimi Eisele creates in her surprising and original debut novel. Evoking the spirit of such monumental love stories as Cold Mountain and the creative vision of novels like Station Eleven, The Lightest Object in the Universe tells the story of what happens after the global economy collapses and the electrical grid goes down. In this new world, Carson, on the East Coast, is desperate to find Beatrix, a woman on the West Coast who holds his heart. Working his way along a cross-country railroad line, he encounters lost souls, clever opportunists, and those who believe they'll be saved by an evangelical preacher in the middle of the country. Mean...while, Beatrix and her neighbors begin to construct a cooperative community that suggests the end could be, in fact, a bright beginning. Without modern means of communication, will Beatrix and Carson reach each other, and what will be left of the old world if they do? The answers may lie with a fifteen-year-old girl who could ultimately decide the fate of the cross-country lovers.

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Subjects
Genres
Novels
Apocalyptic fiction
Science fiction
Romance fiction
Published
Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 2019.
Language
English
Main Author
Kimi Eisele (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
325 pages ; 23 cm
ISBN
9781616207939
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

A near-future apocalypse forms the backdrop for an intense, moving romance in Eisele's smart debut. After the U.S. suffers runaway inflation, natural disasters, a flu epidemic, massive protests, and, finally, a nationwide cyberattack on the power grid, society breaks down. Somewhere on the East Coast, high school principal Carson Waller begins a cross-country trek in hopes of finding Beatrix, a woman he'd fallen in love with over email. Biking, walking, and hitchhiking, he slowly makes his way with the help of strangers who often talk about Jonathan Blue and the Center he leads, where food and amenities are provided for all who come. In alternating chapters, the story explores how Beatrix sows the seeds of a community through trade of goods and services with her West Coast neighbors. With no modern means of communication, Beatrix turns to the airwaves to share information, starting a radio show that becomes the center of a new group-and a beacon for Carson-that offers an alternative to the promises of Blue. Fans of Station Eleven will particularly enjoy this hopeful vision of a postapocalyptic world where there is danger, but also the possibility for ideas to spread, community to blossom, and people to not just survive, but thrive. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

DEBUT Eisele's first novel is apocalypse lite: there are no zombies, invasions, or wars. Instead, there's the flu, a flood, and an inevitable financial fall, a combination that makes this end-of-the-world journey seem ordinary in the best way. These catastrophes hinder access to food, transportation, and medicine, and create room for predatory spiritual leaders and gangs of unruly teenagers (called the T-Rizers) to wreak havoc on the survivors. Beatrix, on the East Coast, and Carson, on the West, are -desperate to find each other to navigate this new era together. And for every person who threatens their progress toward each other, there are others who help. The survivors they meet along the way are rediscovering homesteading and redefining community as they reconstruct a postal system, pool their collective preapocalypse skills, and learn how to trust one another. VERDICT This is Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain crossed with Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. Filled with luminous writing and messages of love and hope, this story will motivate everyone to sharpen their ham radio skills.-Tina Panik, Avon Free P.L., CT © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A post-apocalypse novel takes an unusually optimistic tack, braiding a love story with the efforts of survivors to create new ways to live.Eisele's debut is set in a near future where a global economic meltdown has led to the collapse of governments and power grids, complicated by a pandemic of deadly flu and the unchecked effects of climate change. The main characters dealing with those dire circumstances are Beatrix Banks and Carson Waller, a pair of earnest 30-somethings. Beatrix was an activist for fair labor and trade practices, Carson a high school principal. They met when she spoke to one of his classes about global warming; they spent less than two days together, but they've kept the spark glowing via the internetuntil the web winked out. With no more schools or international trade, they're at loose ends. Carson leaves his home in what sounds like New York City to walk cross-country to find her, following railroad tracks for 3,000 miles. Beatrix, meanwhile, stays put in her home on the West Coast, banding together with neighbors to share food, dig pit toilets, and schlep buckets of water delivered by horse-drawn carts. The novel alternates between their points of view, except for sections focused on Beatrix's neighbor Rosie, a teenager conveniently gifted with second sight. As the lovers wonder if they'll ever find each other, they fret separately over an evangelist named Jonathan Blue, who seems to have taken over the somewhat functional radio airwaves and is exhorting survivors to join his movement. Eisele creates some intriguing characters, but the novel makes dealing with the apocalypse seem a little too easy. Bad times can bring out the best in some people. But given the current state of our deeply divided, heavily armed nation, it takes a stretch to imagine that, in the event of total international disaster, so much of the population would cheerfully turn to manual labor and generosity.It's pretty to think that a global economic, political, and technological collapse could be solved by bike co-ops, backyard chickens, and a radio show about a homegrown superhero, plus a little true love, but this novel just doesn't make it plausible. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.