THE WAY

A pensive, dystopian Western set in the wake of a devastating pandemic stars a reluctant Buddhist hero with an ability to talk to animals.

In 2048, 52-year-old Will Collins is one of the oldest surviving members of a human society that consists mostly of those 30 and under. Living as a hermit for a year when Disease X struck, he got sick but didn't die. Now the sole caretaker of the Colorado Buddhist community where he has spent decades, he receives a message from California-based scientist Lars, father of his old flame Eva, who, Will has been told, died when the pandemic spread 14 years earlier. Lars instructs him to go to a local veterinarian and get an ampoule, which may contain an antidote, implanted in his body, and then make his way to the Sovereign Republic of California. Will calls together his two best friends, the raven Peau and the cat Casse, and uses a team of mules to pull an old truck across the deserted roads, pursued by the vicious Flynn and his militia. Along the way, he reluctantly assumes custody of bright, mouthy 14-year-old orphan Sophie, who is at risk of being forced into prostitution. Groner is at his best in describing the changed landscape, where passenger pigeons and bison have returned in full force and mutant crocodiles make river crossings dangerous, and the many settlements his little troupe encounters, some welcoming and others very much not. The novel sometimes bogs down in discussions of religion, philosophy, and the history of the series of pandemics that led the world into its present situation, and its final chapters are loaded with unlikely twists. But as long as the narrator is on the road, his exploits and observations provide an engaging window into a strange new world.

An ultimately hopeful vision of the aftermath of disaster.