Afterland is one of Alma’s favourite summer reads

So lovely that Alma featured Afterland on this list of summer reads, alongside You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat, Laura Van Den Berg’s new short story collection, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, and Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline.

Emily Burack writes: “I was high-key very, very stressed reading Afterland — but that is the point: It’s a stressful world Cole and Miles are living in! Beukes expertly writes tension and trauma.”

Here’s more:

In Lauren Beukes’ dystopian novel, a mysterious flu pandemic hits the world in 2020. (Gulp.) The flu kills the majority of the world’s men, leaving very few boys and men left alive. One is 12-year-old Miles, born to a white South African mom and Black American dad. They are in America when the pandemic hits, and are unable to get home to South Africa. The Department of Men locks Miles up in a bunker, quarantining him for his safety. The bulk of the story takes place three years post the “Manfall”, when Miles’s mom, Cole, breaks him out of the bunker and tries to find a way for the two of them to get back home to South Africa. As men are super valuable in this new world, a whole host of characters are after Miles — including Cole’s sister, Billie

Great shot of Afterland in more good company from @writersblockbookstore.