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Description edit
Set against the backdrop of one of the most virulent epidemics that America ever experienced–the 1918 flu epidemic–Thomas Mullen’s powerful, sweeping first novel is a tale of morality in a time of upheaval. Deep in the mist-shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small mill town called... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Graham: Older friend of Philip
- Charles Worthy: Owner of the town mill
- Philip: Charles's son
- Frank: Add a description of this character.
- Elsie
- Rebecca
- Doc Banes
- J. B. Merriwhether
- Hightower
- Miller
- Amelia
- Laura
- Alfred Metzger
- Timothy
- Bartrum
- Tamara
- Deacon
- Leonard
- Everett
- Jeanine
- James
- Walsh
- Fiona
- Michelle
- Maureen
- Otto
- Gwen
- Isaac
- Sepenski
- Ito
- Corinne
- Mcrae
- Barnum
- Wilson
- Douglas
- Millie
- Yolen
- Michael
Quotes edit
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“When all was well, you assumed that to suffer such a staggering blow would break you, but when such ills actually befell you, you somehow persevered. You didn't survive to prove something to anyone, you didn't press on simply because you wished to, and you didn't endure because of what the preacher in church said. You survived because deep inside everyone was the simple, indefatiguable need to press on, whatever the costs. And even if so much was stripped away that you no longer recognized yourself, the thing left was the part of you that you that you never understood, that you always underestimated, that you were always afraid to look at. You were afraid you'd need it one day and it wouldn't be there for you, but in fact was the one thing that couldn't be taken away.”
Amelia
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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It had occurred to Philip that every decision made by the town since the quarantine began had been somewhat selfish. They’d placed themselves on a pedestal above all outsiders, holding their value to be superior on pain of death.
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When all was well, you assumed that to suffer such a staggering blow would break you, but when such ills actually befell you, you somehow persevered. You didn’t survive to prove something to anyone, you didn’t press on simply because you wished to, and you didn’t endure because of what the preacher in church said. You survived because deep inside everyone was the simple, indefatigable need to press on, whatever the costs.
Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers -
an opportunity can be either the shortest-lived thing or the longest-lasting thing in the world. You take advantage of it when you have it, and it’ll last forever. You sit on your hands, though, and it’ll be gone before you can even blink a second time.”
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Philip had learned—the quarantine designed to block out the flu had only succeeded in cutting off the town from its previous ideals of right and wrong. It was a town in full eclipse, and Philip would have to navigate through the dark by himself.
Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers -
Women never would have allowed this nation to turn to war, never would have let the politicians take their sons away for battles on the other side of the earth.
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“I believe now that what’s happened here was simply meant to be, that this is something larger than all of us—larger than each of us individually and larger than all of us collectively.
Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers -
read and write, and let us plug them into the trenches, let them die for J. P. Morgan.
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No, he thought, succumbing to superstition. Don’t think that way—never regard a past death as welcome. That thought can serve as an invitation to death, allowing it to visit again, make itself at home.
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Now that Commonwealth was infected, its residents were frightened and suspicious—people were no longer interested in communal sacrifice.
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where they had renamed sauerkraut “liberty cabbage”—but
Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
First Sentence edit
The sun poked out briefly, evidence of a universe above them, of watchful things-planets and stars and vast galaxies of infinite knowledge-and just as suddenly it retreated behind the clouds.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Thomas Mullen (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Random House
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2006
ISBN: 1400065208
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Random House
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2006
ISBN: 1400065208
Page Count: 416
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.6
Subjects edit
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