Mark Spitz is a civilian volunteer working as a manual laborer in a post-apocalyptic Manhattan. After a plague turns most of the population into cannibalistic creatures, he joins a three-person cleaning crew tasked with clearing the remaining infected from the fortified civilian territory of Zone One. While the fast-moving creatures represent an immediate threat, the crew also encounters "stragglers"—catatonic infected figures stuck in repetitive, mindless loops of their former lives. The story tracks Mark’s memories of the initial collapse alongside the grueling, bureaucratic process of reclaiming a city that is already structurally and socially dead.
Readers of literary fiction and psychological horror appreciate this book for its deconstruction of urban life and corporate monotony. It appeals to those tired of standard survival tropes who prefer an examination of how bureaucracy survives even at the end of the world. The reader walks away with a cynical perspective on the persistence of social class and the realization that the routines of modern civilization are as hollow as the shells of the buildings left behind.
Deep and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2011
- Language
- EN
