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The year is 2035, and the end has come for a great majority of the people, but Lionel Romero still survives to vent his frustrations. The new year has dawned, and Lionel has decided to make a fresh start and head north from his home state of Florida. The plan was to drive from Fort Lauderdale and, hopefully, make it as far as the Midwest, but as he soon finds out, the best-laid plans are seldom realized. A chance encounter with two survivors leads him to chauffeur the pair to an island for an apocalyptic bacchanalia. An overnight stay at a hotel ends with Lionel being nearly murdered by a gang of radical Women. Every experience is chronicled in a journal Lionel is keeping, one he hopes to complete before the virus comes for him.
The story of Lionel's journey through a post-apocalyptic world to find a place of his own is at the heart of this amusing existential novel. The protagonist has experienced loss on a massive scale when he is first introduced, having lost his family and girlfriend to the deadly pandemic. Any pretense of concern is seemingly dropped with the world's end. While Lionel appears almost carefree, if not indifferent, the opposite is proven true when he shows his compassion and single-handedly buries a deceased family that he discovers on the road. Lionel's narrative is one of introspection in facing one's mortality while reflecting on how, when living on borrowed time, there is no risk too great. This is both a spirited and readable novel.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review