The Last Town on Earth

Thomas Mullen

Jun 2008 · Recorded Books · Narrated by Henry Strozier

About this audiobook

During World War I, the influenza pandemic ultimately killed more people around the world than the war itself. The Last Town on Earth takes as its launching point a striking historical footnote: some uninfected towns were so terrified of the surrounding flu that they closed their entrances, posted signs warning strangers not to enter, and even stationed armed guards to make sure no outsiders brought infection into their communities. Mullen incisively imagines this situation, employing it as the basis for the moral drama spurring his story forward. One night, an infected soldier approaches the newly founded town of Commonwealth, which was created as a refuge for its mill worker residents, begging for food and shelter. Should the guards on duty admit a stranger to their town (someone who has been fighting a war on their behalf), thereby putting their families and loved ones at risk of infection? Or should they place their lives above his and leave him to freeze to death in the dark woods?

About the author

Thomas Mullen is an American author, born in Providence, Rhode Island. He is a graduate of Oberlin College. He writes stories and essays which have been published in Grantland, Paste, The Huffington Post, and Atlanta Magazine. His novels include The Last Town on Earth, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, and The Revisionists. He writes the Darktown series, which includes the novels Darktown, and Lightning Men. He won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for excellence in historical fiction with his book, The Last Town on Earth.