The Awakening

Quintin Reyes is searching for his brother, but Carlos is just one of the millions who have gone missing in recent months. Following "the Awakening," which stripped humanity of faith in all of its gods, people are abandoning their families and careers to embrace pleasure and debauchery-or to end their lives. Is Carlos one of those lost souls? Or is there more behind his disappearance?

Driving across the United States, Quintin explores a nation that is being transformed by sudden liberation and crushing loss. Throughout the country, grieving believers are seeking a surrogate for their dead religions. From this void emerges a mysterious group promising a better way forward, but who are the Elenchi and what can they really offer?

An irreverent but humane journey through a faithless America, The Awakening asks if it's possible to find redemption in unbelief.

Joseph Lyttleton is an American writer and editor based in Madrid, Spain. From 2005 to 2015, he lived in ten different US cities for his 10 Cities/10 Years project. Since 2023, he has cohosted the Madrid Writers Group. His first novel, Yahweh's Children, was published in 2018.