The Bestest Books About The End Of The World

Station 11 – Emily St John Mandel (Picador)

You may think you’ve had a nasty flu this winter, but it’s nothing compared to that which explodes in the opening chapter of this season’s best dystopian novel. In its eerie first chapters Georgia flu wipes out 99% of the population in days. Then, instead of focussing on those first few week,s it looks at what happened to society before the flu, and how those left behind cope many years later. Humanity and creativity are the preoccupations, not wi-fi and canned goods. Chilling and inspiring in equal measure, it’s a story about storytelling and a survival novel that reminds you how much we can survive if we have each other.

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Delirium – Lauren Oliver

Delirium is set in an alternate present where love itself has been declared a disease (amor deliria nervosa), for which everyone must be treated at the age of 18. Clearly this reaches every reader’s “but I didn’t ASK to be born” lovelorn teen-self with ruthless efficiency. And it creates a perfect conundrum for heroine Lena, when she falls in love with one of the un-inoculated months before the procedure she has been looking forward to so much. Perfect on the heady rush of first-time love, and fantastic on all the niggly details of the alternate loveless world, it’s almost as good as finding a cache of old teen love letters – but with a much better plot.

Z For Zachariah – Robert C O'Brien

First published in 1974, this was (is?!) the school reading classic that made more teenagers – especially girls – scared rigid of nuclear war than any other. As if being the sole survivor in a post-nuclear world wasn’t bad enough, Ann is then discovered (on her family farm whose valley is mysteriously untouched by nerve gas) by the creepy scientist Loomis. At first they strike up an alliance, each as desperate for human company as the other. But it doesn’t take long before he starts to belittle her, becomes violent and attempts to rape her. Ann is heroic, empathetic and ingenious throughout. It’s currently being filmed, starring Margot Robbie, Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor. If it has even 2% of the menace of the novel, it will be terrifying.

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On The Beach – Nevil Shute

Shute’s 1957 classic focusses not on the aftermath of the apocalypse, but on its slow approach, and the response of those who know they won’t survive. Set largely in Melbourne, it sees those left alive waiting for the slow fug of radiation to reach them from World War 3 – which started in the northern hemisphere the previous year. The characters seem like classic, clipped 1950s archetypes, but their behaviour speaks volumes. Determined to live fully until the inevitable end, they plant gardens they’ll never see, takes courses in skills they’ll never use, and even set about emptying cellars full of wine just for kicks. And they love, deeply. There are moments that seem anachronistic, but you’re mostly left consumed with a sense of ‘Carpe Diem’.

The Postman – David Brin

If you concluded that The Hunger Games was too much lightweight fun, then the relentless grimness of The Postman is the one for you. Written in the ’80s, it feels a lot like a slice of grim Americana. The postman himself is actually Gordon Krantz, who does not work for the postal service, but merely found a uniform and wears it for warmth. He travels the ravaged, collapsed, US telling stories and reciting Shakespeare in exchange for what he needs to survive, before realising the force of storytelling and myths in getting power for himself. It works as a great companion piece to Station 11, or a morality tale about power, but remains rather dry.

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Pictures: Jake Kenny

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.