Three years ago, the sun began to die. In a desperate attempt to
reignite the failing star, the United States had joined the rest of the
planet in unloading its nuclear arsenal at the flickering ember. The
missiles burst from silos in Wyoming and Bangladesh, cocooning the earth
in tendrils of smoke as they began their two-and-a-half year journey
into space. When they finally reach their target, it's thirty degrees in
July and getting colder. Lisa and her husband, Guy, sit shivering on a
Southern hilltop, watching as humanity's last hope at survival shimmers
faintly...and then disappears below the horizon.
A group of militant rebels called the Minutemen take advantage of the
ensuing chaos to knock out power grids, cloaking the freezing earth in
near darkness. Seizing control. To escape this ruthless new world order,
Lisa and Guy join a reluctant band of refugees crossing the snow-covered
South in search of shelter and answers. From an icy parking lot in
Atlanta to the Minutemen's makeshift headquarters at Asheville's
Biltmore Estate, only one thing is certain: in a world with little
light, nothing is guaranteed--least of all survival.
Ember is the 2016 winner of the South Carolina First Novel Prize as
judged by novelist Bridgett M. Davis.
