One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.

It’s the end of the world, but not as we know it.  The rise of a zombie plague, and life in the aftermath, but a real cut above the usual hack-slash thrillers of the genre.  In fact I think it should have been three volumes.  It is enormous, but worth it.  A moving and involving story charting the fall of civilisation, then chronicling life in the new world a few generations later.  Really powerful stuff.

May 2011 Mega Book of the Month.

Maxim Jakubowski's view...

A truly epic masterpiece that will have you hanging on for dear life for both its conclusion and the next volume.  It's a chilling end of the world as we know it saga, this first volume of a trilogy has all the impact of Stephen King’s THE STAND in breadth of vision and length. Following a failed military experiment, America falls to a zombie/vampire epidemic and only a curious little girl and a group of doughty survivors hold the key to survival.

'Read 15 pages, and you will find yourself captivated; read 30 and you will find yourself taken prisoner and reading late into the night. It had the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve. What else can I say? This: read this book and the ordinary world disappears.'   Stephen King

Why I Wrote The Passage by Justin Cronin...

You write the book that asks to be written, and THE PASSAGE asked me to write it on a series
of long jogs in the fall of 2005, taken in the company of my daughter, Iris, age eight, who rode
beside me on her bicycle. Click here to read more...

Comparison: Alden Bell, Rhys Thomas, Carrie Ryan
For more see our Author 'Like for Like' recommendation system
 

Synopsis

An epic, awe-inspiring novel of good and evil - the most talked about book of the year, and now a global bestseller.

Amy Harper Bellafonte is six years old and her mother thinks she's the most important person in the whole world. She is. Anthony Carter doesn't think he could ever be in a worse place than Death Row. He's wrong. FBI agent Brad Wolgast thinks something beyond imagination is coming. It is. THE PASSAGE.

Reviews

Praise for The Passage

‘A feverishly readable post-apocalyptic-cum-vampire chiller. . . a brilliantly told story . . . thrilling plot twists and graphic action sequences’ Guardian

‘If you only take one book away with you this summer, make it The Passage . . . an absorbing, nightmarish dream of a book, a terrifying apocalyptic thriller’ The Times

‘Epic, apocalyptic, heart-wrenching, catastrophic, mesmerising’ Daily Mirror

‘A genuinely jolting horror story’ Scotland on Sunday

‘It more than lives up to the considerable hype. . . breathtaking plot . . . the conclusion will leave you gasping. A modern classic in the making’ SFX

‘A dark epic that matches the best of Stephen King’ Heat

‘There are enough human themes to raise it well above the average horror’ Independent on Sunday

‘Cronin writes with verve and versatility . . . and his future world is richly imagined’ Sunday Times

‘Cronin’s sprawling epic, the first of a trilogy, is insanely elaborate, with a huge amount of thought given to the world. It’s immersive, nuanced and splendid (in a terrifying way) – it draws you in and refuses to let you go . . . stirred by metaphor’ Sci Fi Now

‘Older lads of the Stephen-King adoring type . . . can devour the doorstep du jour: Justin Cronin’s novel The Passage, with its apocalyptic plague of the viral undead’  Independent

‘I turned The Passage's pages feverishly to find out what happened next’ Observer

‘A gripping story and a richly drawn cast’ Daily Mail

‘This epic tale is truly exhilarating stuff’ Daily Express

‘Every so often a novel-reader’s novel comes along: an enthralling, entertaining story wedded to simple, supple prose, both informed by tremendous imagination . . .  It had the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve. What else can I say? This: read this book and the ordinary world disappears’ Stephen King

About the Author

Born and raised in New England, Justin Cronin is a multi-award-winning writer. He is Professor of English at Rice University, and lives with his family in Houston, Texas. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation