The Lightest Object in the Universe

Locations
Call Number: Science Fiction / Eisele, Kimi
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Eisele, Kimi	4-week checkout	On Shelf

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. Meanwhile, 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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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Dystopia with hope submitted by mowjac on July 6, 2019, 11:30am This novel toggles between Beatrix's story, which is about staying put, and Carson's, which is about letting go, in a USA with no central government. There are some moments of soapboxing, but the characters are well drawn and the author hews to the narrative over political stances. As dystopias go, it has faith in our humanity and kindness and leaves the reader thinking rather than paralyzed with despair.