Contains Reading Group notes.
It began with a dead bird. Then state-wide school closure. Before long, the whole town is in lockdown and the Brooks family are quarantined in their own home - with a faceless enemy on their doorstep.
They must cope as best they can, battling hunger, cold and boredom. But as the threat inches closer and neighbour turns against neighbour, single mother Ann doesn't know who she can trust - including those taking refuge in her house.
With no end in sight, Ann knows that if she is to protect her daughters from untold danger, she must make impossible decisions in order to survive...
Utterly engrossing...guaranteed to keep you up all night, as you follow one family's pulse-pounding journey through the worst that can happen and beyond. - Lisa Gardner
An amazing achievement. What makes it works is that Buckley explores a global catastrophe with such a narrow focus, and with complex characters that we come to care deeply about. - Linwood Barclay
Carla Buckley was born in Washington, D.C. She has worked as an assistant press secretary for a U.S. senator, an analyst with the Smithsonian Institution, and a technical writer for a defense contractor. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with her husband, an environmental scientist, and their three children. She has been nominated for a Thriller Award as a Best First novel and the Ohioana Book Award for fiction.