A GIFT UPON THE SHORE

by M.K. Wren ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1990

Post-apocalypse/dying-of-the-light yarn set in coastal Oregon, from the author of paperback science-fiction tales and mysteries. In the near future, a series of disasters reduces the world to rubble: nuclear war, a Lassa fever pandemic, a huge earthquake that destroys most of California, and gangs of lunatic vandals to finish off the remainder. The subsistence farm Amarna is inhabited by two courageous survivors--writer Mary Hope and her artist friend Rachel Morrow; together they endure the fallout, the gangs, diseases, earthquakes, and nuclear winter. Eventually, some other survivors show up; these turn out to be religious fanatics who interpret the Bible literally and believe in nothing else. As the years pass, and the community of Amarna takes shape, Mary's principal adversary in the struggle to win the hearts and minds of future generations becomes Miriam--the spectacularly beautiful, intolerant, Bible-thumping, iron-willed mistress of the religious flock. Miriam decrees that all books other than the Bible are evil and must be destroyed. So, Mary must hide and guard Rachel's legacy, an eclectic library of whatever books survived the numerous disasters, and also educate Stephen--a young, intelligent, thoughtful boy who will someday become patriarch--in the truth of the past with its miracles and failures, and the necessity for tolerance. Beautifully realized, with solid characters, but unoriginal, obvious, implausible, obtrusively symbolic, and far too slow in the development: more admirable than practical.

Pub Date: March 1, 1990

ISBN: 0595143415

Page Count: -

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION