On a reassuringly sunny summer day, Amanda, an account director in advertising Clay, a college professor and their children, Archie, 15, and Rose, 13, make their way from Brooklyn to a luxury home (swimming pool! hot tub! marble countertops!) in a remote area of Long Island they’ve rented for a family vacation. Press the ‘play’ button to hear the full episode.An interrupted family vacation, unexpected visitors, a mysterious blackout-something is happening, and the world may never be the same. This conversation was lightly edited for clarity and brevity. So if I had to see the end, I think that would be a pretty great place to see it. You have a hot dog for dinner, and you’re asleep by 8:30. I just have such beautiful memories of being there with my kids really doing nothing. There’s a weird population of almost-tame wild deer wandering around. There are no cars in the community we vacation in. It’s just a very quiet, very beautiful place. The particular house described in the book is based quite specifically on a house I rented with my family in 2017. The book is written in a place that doesn’t really exist, but the geography I’m describing is a place I do go to with my family all the time. It is: If you could be on vacation anywhere during the end of the world, where would it be?Īlam: Wow, it’s probably exactly what I describe in the book actually.Īlam: Yeah, so the book is set in a pretend place, which is really important for me to understand because I have heard this kind of push back from readers who read in a more literal way. Johnsen: I got a question for you from a Nerdette listener. You’re still getting that same experience of joy, and that matters. You know, you can celebrate the birth of a new child whether you’re a comfortably middle class person in the United States or a stateless person negotiating a grave political conflict. But I also think there’s something remarkable about the fact that, no matter the experience of your life, if you are trying to squeeze out a little bit of joy, it can be really beautiful. Johnsen: Yeah, I mean, when you really think about it real life is kind of f-ed up, huh?Īlam: Yeah, unfortunately it can be. Because we’re all going to feel the effects of these big choices, but we’re not the ones making them. Fine, renounce using plastic drinking straws, but unless you personally are the CEO of Exxon, I’m not sure that your individual choices are really going to change any aspect of contemporary life. But there really is no good answer … And I think that feels to me so much like the contemporary moment. I mean, it is a group of people experiencing an emergency. Johnsen: I think something that makes this book really fascinating is that there aren’t really any good choices to make for the characters.

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