FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. Brad is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey.
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Summary
FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. Brad is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey.
Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This thrilling novel kicks off what Stephen King calls “a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction.”
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NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST HORROR BOOKS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR BY TIME AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Esquire • U.S. News & World Report • NPR/On Point • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • BookPage • Library Journal
“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”
An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
Look for the entire Passage trilogy:
THE PASSAGE | THE TWELVE | THE CITY OF MIRRORS
Praise for The Passage
“[A] blockbuster.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Mythic storytelling.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Magnificent . . . Cronin has taken his literary gifts, and he has weaponized them. . . . The Passage can stand proudly next to Stephen King’s apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand, but a closer match would be Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: a story about human beings trying to generate new hope in a world from which all hope has long since been burnt.”—Time
“The type of big, engrossing read that will have you leaving the lights on late into the night.”—The Dallas Morning News
“Addictive.”—Men’s Journal
“Cronin’s unguessable plot and appealing characters will seize your heart and mind.”—Parade
Awards
Winner of Indie Next 2010
Critic Reviews
“"Meet what is likely to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer."-People "A postapocalyptic vampire trilogy, which Stephen King has hailed as a captivating epic…a potential commercial blockbuster by an award-winning literary novelist."-Wall Street Journal "Cronin's unguessable plot and appealing characters will seize your heart and mind."-Parade "Cronin has given us what could be the best book of the summer. Don't wait to dive intoThe Passage."-USA Today "The Passagemay be almost 800 pages, but you will turn them quickly." -NPR'sAll Things Considered "Cronin gets it just right; the combination of attentive realism and doomsday stakes makes for a mesmerizing experience."-Salon.com "Magnificently unnerving…AThe Stand-meets-The Roadjourney."-Entertainment Weekly, A- "A literary richness that rivals Stephen King'sThe Stand."-Time "Addictive, terrifying, and deeply satisfying. Not only is this one of the year's best thrillers; it's one of the best of the past decade - maybe one of the best ever."-Men's Journal "This summer's new 'it' book…a postapocalyptic epic…We've just found our summer escape!"-Elle, "Top 10 Summer Books for 2010" "Every so often a novel-reader's novel comes along: an enthralling, entertaining story wedded to simple, supple prose, both informed by tremendous imagination. Summer is the perfect time for such books, and this year readers can enjoy the gift of Justin Cronin'sThe Passage. Read fifteen pages and you will find yourself captivated; read thirty and you will find yourself taken prisoner and reading late into the night. It has the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve. What else can I say? This: read this book and the ordinary world disappears."-Stephen King "Justin Cronin has written a wild, headlong, sweeping extravaganza of a novel. The Passageis the literary equivalent of a unicorn: a bonafide thriller that is sharply written, deeply humane, ablaze with big ideas, and absolutely impossible to put down."-Jennifer Egan "Fans of vampire fiction who are bored by the endless hordes of sensitive, misunderstood Byronesque bloodsuckers will revel in Cronin's engrossingly horrific account of a postapocalyptic American overrun by the gruesome reality behind the wish-fulfillment fantasies…manages to engage the reader with a sweeping epic style."-Publishers Weekly(starred review and "Pick of the week") "Literary author Cronin turns in an apocalyptic thriller in the spirit of Stephen King or Michael Crichton....The young girl as heroine and role model is a nice touch."-Kirkus "[An] apocalyptic epic…Expect a lot of interest in this title." -Booklist "The monsters in this compulsive nail biter are the scariest in fiction since Stephen King's vampires in Salem's Lot...This exceptional thriller should be one of the most popular novels this year and will draw in readers everywhere."Library Journal,starred review From the Hardcover edition.”
“[A] blockbuster.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Mythic storytelling.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Magnificent . . . Cronin has taken his literary gifts, and he has weaponized them. . . . The Passage can stand proudly next to Stephen King’s apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand, but a closer match would be Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: a story about human beings trying to generate new hope in a world from which all hope has long since been burnt.”—Time
“The type of big, engrossing read that will have you leaving the lights on late into the night.”—The Dallas Morning News
“Addictive.”—Men’s Journal
“Cronin’s unguessable plot and appealing characters will seize your heart and mind.”—Parade
“Cronin has given us what could be the best book of the summer. Don’t wait to dive into The Passage.”—USA Today
“Great storytelling . . . vital, tender, and compelling.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“Cronin gets it just right; the combination of attentive realism and doomsday stakes makes for a mesmerizing experience.”—Salon
“Magnificently unnerving . . . A The Stand-meets-The Road journey.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Imagine Michael Crichton crossbreeding Stephen King’s The Stand and Salem’s Lot in that lab on Jurassic Park, with rich infusions of Robert McCammon’s Swan Song, Battlestar Galactica and even Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.”—The Washington Post
About the Author
Justin Cronin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage, The Twelve, The City of Mirrors, Mary and O’Neil (which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize), and The Summer Guest. Other honors for his writing include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Whiting Writers’ Award. A Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Rice University, he divides his time between Houston, Texas, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
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