The Pesthouse

Generations after an unexplained catastrophe has wrecked America and dragged it back to a pre-industrial wilderness, the survivors walk east toward the sea, chasing rumors of ships that will carry them off a dying continent. Franklin Lopez, injured and unable to keep pace, takes shelter in a stone hut where Margaret has been left to die of a plague fever, her head shaved and her body painted to mark the sickness. When the worst passes, the two set out together through a country of raiders, religious zealots, and ruined towns, building a fragile bond as they walk. Crace turns the American frontier inside out, replacing the westward dream with a desperate march toward an ocean that may hold no salvation at all.