Robert McCammon · 1987 · survival

Robert McCammon's 1987 nuclear-apocalypse epic, a sprawling battle between hope and despair across a ruined America. As the missiles fall, a bag lady in New York finds a glowing glass ring, and a wrestler shields a girl named Swan, who can coax life from dead earth. Their separate roads converge on a dying settlement and then on a single mountain, where the last of humanity will decide whether to begin again or end it all.

1. 1
   New York City

   As the missiles fall, the bag lady Sister survives deep in the subway and finds a glowing ring of glass in the ruins.

2. 2
   Kansas

   Far to the west, the girl Swan and the wrestler Josh dig out of a buried gas station into a poisoned winter.

3. 3
   Mary's Rest

   Drawn together across the wasteland, the survivors reach a dying settlement, where Swan's touch brings the dead fields back to life.

4. 4
   Warwick Mountain

   And east at last to a mountain, for the final reckoning between hope and annihilation.