A Gift Upon the Shore - Softcover

Wren, M.K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1626811288 ISBN 13: 9781626811287

Publisher: Diversion Books, 2013

Synopsis

In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, two women seek to preserve the small treasury of books available to them - a gift of knowledge and hope for future generations.

"[A] poignant expression of the durability, grace, and potential of the human spirit." ―Jean M. Auel, author of the Earth's Children series

In the 21st Century, civilization is crumbling under the burden of overpopulation, economic chaos, petty wars, a horrific pandemic, and finally, a nuclear war that inevitably results in a deadly nuclear winter.

On the Oregon Coast, two women, writer Mary Hope and painter Rachel Morrow, scratch out a minimal existence as farmers. In what little time is available to them, they embark on the project that they hope will offer the gift of knowledge to future generations of survivors―the preservation of the books: those available from their own collections and any they find at nearby abandoned houses.

For years, Mary and Rachel are satisfied to labor at this task in their solitude, but a day comes when they encounter a young man who comes from a group of survivors on the southern coast. They call their community the Ark. An incredibly hopeful meeting, it might seem, until Rachel and Mary realize that the Arkites believe in only one book―the Judeo-Christian bible―and regard all other books as blasphemous.

"Wren's post-nuclear world rings true, as do her compelling depictions of the subsistence-level daily life." ―Publisher's Weekly

"[Wren's] passionate concern with what gives life meaning carries the novel." ―Library Journal

About this title

About the Author

Martha Kay Renfroe is an Oregon writer, author of mystery and science fiction under the pen name M.K. Wren. Her work includes the Conan Flagg mystery series, the Phoenix Legacy trilogy, and the postapocalyptic novel A Gift Upon the Shore, set along the Oregon coast.

From Publishers Weekly

Unsparing but ultimately hopeful, this elegiac novel, set in the near future, traces the first generations to survive nuclear war and ensuing plagues. Writer Mary Hope and Rachel Morrow, a painter, eke out a meager existence at a farm on the Oregon coast. As they struggle through the Long Winter following the End, as the nuclear disaster is simply called, their desolation is succeeded by a determination to collect and preserve for a new civilization the great books of Western culture. Down the coast is another set of survivors, the Arkites, a fundamentalist group that denies all knowledge not contained in the Bible. Mary marries and briefly joins the Arkites but leaves after the leader calls Rachel a witch. Years later, when plague strikes the Arkites, Mary agrees to take in the few survivors on condition that she be allowed to educate the children as she sees fit. A bitter struggle develops between Mary and a strong-willed young Arkite for the minds of the children, particularly the boy destined to lead the next generation. Wren's (the Phoenix trilogy) post-nuclear world rings true, as do her compelling depictions of the subsistence-level daily life--the triumphs, the losses and the desperation.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Diversion Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1626811288
• ISBN 13: 9781626811287
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 374