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The Last Town on Earth
Thomas Mullen
Set against the dual backdrop of World War I and the devastating 1918 influenza epidemic, ‘The Last Town On Earth’ is a brilliantly drawn tale of morality and patriotism in a time of upheaval.Deep in the woods of Washington lies the mill town of Commonwealth, a new community founded on progressive ideals, and a refuge for workers who have fled the labor violence in the surrounding towns. When rumours spread of a mysterious illness that is killing people at an alarming rate, the people of the uninfected Commonwealth vote to block all roads into town and post armed guards to prevent any outsiders from entering.One day two guards are confronted with a moral dilemma. A starving and apparently ill soldier attempts to enter the town, begging them for food and shelter. Should the guards admit him, possibly putting their families at risk? Or should they place their lives above his and let him die in the woods? The choice they make – and the reaction it inspires in their town and beyond – sets into motion a series of events that threaten to tear Commonwealth apart.A sweeping cinematic novel, ‘The Last Town on Earth’ powerfully grapples with the tensions of individual safety and social responsibility, of moral obligation and duty in the face of forces larger than oneself.
THOMAS MULLEN
The Last Town on Earth
A NOVEL
HARPER PERENNIAL London, New York, Toronto and Sydney
Table of Contents
Cover (#uad3d01b5-d021-5a44-b478-ada7bfde2b46)
Title Page (#uf977a121-46bb-5d5a-af57-ad696ca0f324)
Prologue (#u1d49ca26-0ad2-5ecf-8613-8600a87c5b5b)
Part One COMMONWEALTH (#uf530099f-1843-55cf-b56e-d7d17f143436)
I (#u8465aed1-c11e-59cf-9c3d-d3aaf96afd20)
II (#u780ea0e6-7ede-5ef7-9768-469ce140eff4)
III (#u33bc0b00-6720-58d4-a913-edd7c3ebdd53)
IV (#u1b65af53-3d6f-5171-814c-2071f054ddc8)
V (#uce40f491-1d86-531a-b0d4-a5ec81fbf434)
VI (#uacb95c5d-c4aa-5045-a068-28e699f029fe)
VII (#u3a349930-1087-5512-8738-c853bab65260)
VIII (#u1ea80aa7-d61f-5a95-a7c0-1c3e79f75f8a)
IX (#ud168389c-e58a-514e-ab64-8aced2654532)
X (#u1a825e94-db17-5589-9f29-018246b2f050)
XI (#litres_trial_promo)
XII (#litres_trial_promo)
XIII (#litres_trial_promo)
Part Two PRISONERS (#litres_trial_promo)
I (#litres_trial_promo)
II (#litres_trial_promo)
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IV (#litres_trial_promo)
V (#litres_trial_promo)
VI (#litres_trial_promo)
VII (#litres_trial_promo)
VIII (#litres_trial_promo)
IX (#litres_trial_promo)
X (#litres_trial_promo)
XI (#litres_trial_promo)
XII (#litres_trial_promo)
XIII (#litres_trial_promo)
XIV (#litres_trial_promo)
XV (#litres_trial_promo)
XVI (#litres_trial_promo)
Part Three SACRIFICE (#litres_trial_promo)
I (#litres_trial_promo)
II (#litres_trial_promo)
III (#litres_trial_promo)
IV (#litres_trial_promo)
V (#litres_trial_promo)
VI (#litres_trial_promo)
VII (#litres_trial_promo)
VIII (#litres_trial_promo)
IX (#litres_trial_promo)
X (#litres_trial_promo)
XI (#litres_trial_promo)
XII (#litres_trial_promo)
XIII (#litres_trial_promo)
XIV (#litres_trial_promo)
XV (#litres_trial_promo)
XVI (#litres_trial_promo)
XVII (#litres_trial_promo)
XVIII (#litres_trial_promo)
XIX (#litres_trial_promo)
Part Four SPECTERS (#litres_trial_promo)
I (#litres_trial_promo)
II (#litres_trial_promo)
III (#litres_trial_promo)
IV (#litres_trial_promo)
V (#litres_trial_promo)
VI (#litres_trial_promo)
VII (#litres_trial_promo)
AUTHOR’S NOTE (#litres_trial_promo)
NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
From the reviews of The Last Town on Earth:
A subtle, robustly written novel of compelling contemporary resonance’
HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON, Observer
‘Thomas Mullen is an old-fashioned storyteller, and his epic novel dramatises the complex tensions between individual rights and group responsibilities … Mullen is both merciless and measured in his depiction of the natural forces that can drag idealism down to earth’
Daily Telegraph
‘In these days of anxiety over pandemics and terrorist “others” possibly in our midst, Thomas Mullen’s novel of the Spanish influenza epidemic during World War I and its particular effect on a Pacific Northwest town could not be more timely or relevant, and eerily so. I promise you, while you’re reading The Last Town on Earth, the mere sound of a cough will be enough to raise the hair at the back of your neck’
LARRY WATSON, bestselling author of Montana 1948
‘The Last Town on Earth wraps its reader in its quiet power. As the characters become trapped by their town, we become increasingly trapped by our own fears and hopes. Thomas Mullen’s debut is stirring, classic storytelling, with a deep resonance between the book’s moment in history and our own times’
MATTHEW PEARL, author of The Dante Club
‘In his remarkable first novel a brilliant series of plot twists is set in motion … Chilling parallels are overshadowed by the steady, nerve-shredding movement toward the story’s climax … Time and again, Mullen’s suspenseful storytelling pulls us forward. Time and again, his imagery … is devastatingly right’
New York Times
‘Thomas Mullen’s page-turner of a debut historical novel … [is] part morality tale, part coming-of-age yarn … Gripping … Psychological suspense, villains, victims, a conflicted hero or two, secrets and a mystery. In short, it’s a grabber’
Washington Post
‘Mullen provides a rich historical background and a well-drawn cast of characters … A fascinating account of a time and a place that most of us have never heard about’
Los Angeles Times
‘An engaging look at political and social isolation, and a vivid … study of human nature … The drama of the situation carries the book as inexorably forward as does the march of influenza through the area … If this novel teaches us something, it is that our history books can rarely portray the personal nature of political discourse in the past, or the sacrifices people make for their ideals’
The Lancet
‘Wonderful … Mullen has done a fine job with this, his debut novel, presenting an array of characters and showing with a deft hand their differing responses to the situation in which the town finds itself … [He] has created a fascinating microcosm and it’s enthralling to watch … What makes this novel compelling is not only its hint of allegory … but the broader questions it forces us to ask … What he manages to do is leave the reader interrogating themselves as to what their own response would be and should be if faced with these same ethical dilemmas. And that’s something to be valued in any novel’
Canberra Times (Australia)
Perhaps the easiest way of making a town’s acquaintance is to ascertain how the people in it work, how they love, and how they die.
—ALBERT CAMUS,
The Plague
An injury to one is an injury to all.
—Industrial Workers of the World slogan
Prologue (#uca71b0af-35fc-54fc-ac82-640faf717bce)
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.
