I’ve heard good things about Jim Crace for the past few years; friends have told me he is an author I would enjoy, so I decided to take a look at his latest novel, The Pesthouse.

It’s the second novel I’ve read in the past few months set in a post-apocalyptic America, the other being Cormac McCarthy’s masterful, newly-hailed Oprah’s Book Club selection, The Road. The Pesthouse offers little to no back story about what catastrophe wiped America out; it’s a world stripped back to a medieval era of violence, superstition and rumor.

Franklin Lopez and his stronger, older brother Jackson, have left their home to flee to the East Coast to catch a boat to Europe. Franklin must stop to rest an inflamed knee while his brother forges ahead. Searching for a place to rest, Franklin stumbles upon the “Pesthouse" and Margaret, a woman who has been quarantined because her fellow villagers suspect she is contagious with “the flux”, a disease that has killed others in their community. A mysterious pestilence kills everyone in the village that night, sparing Franklin and Margaret who through pure luck happen to be on a hill and beyond the death’s reach.

Franklin and Margaret discover that every living thing in the village has died, so they decide to head toward the ocean. The remainder of the book chronicles their adventures, together and apart.  At heart, this desolate, sparse book is ultimately the love story of two people randomly thrown together who create for themselves a life worth living. I highly recommend checking this book out!