LoveReading Says
It’s the end of the world, but not as we know it. The rise of a zombie plague, and life in the aftermath, but a real cut above the usual hack-slash thrillers of the genre. In fact I think it should have been three volumes. It is enormous, but worth it. A moving and involving story charting the fall of civilisation, then chronicling life in the new world a few generations later. Really powerful stuff.
One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.
STOP PRESS – The eagerly awaited sequel to The Passage is out at the end of October 2012. It’s called The Twelve and you can read an exclusive extract right now here on Lovereading. In addition to our expert opinion above and below for The Passage, we’ve also managed to secure a few copies so that Lovereading members can review it for us. Just scroll down this page to see what they think.
May 2011 Mega Book of the Month.
Maxim Jakubowski's view...
A truly epic masterpiece that will have you hanging on for dear life for both its conclusion and the next volume. It's a chilling end of the world as we know it saga, this first volume of a trilogy has all the impact of Stephen King’s THE STAND in breadth of vision and length. Following a failed military experiment, America falls to a zombie/vampire epidemic and only a curious little girl and a group of doughty survivors hold the key to survival.
'Read 15 pages, and you will find yourself captivated; read 30 and you will find yourself taken prisoner and reading late into the night. It had the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve. What else can I say? This: read this book and the ordinary world disappears.' Stephen King
Why I Wrote The Passage by Justin Cronin...
You write the book that asks to be written, and THE PASSAGE asked me to write it on a series
of long jogs in the fall of 2005, taken in the company of my daughter, Iris, age eight, who rode
beside me on her bicycle. Click here to read more...
Sarah Broadhurst
Find This Book In
The Passage Synopsis
Amy Harper Bellafonte is six years old and her mother thinks she's the most important person in the whole world. She is. Anthony Carter doesn't think he could ever be in a worse place than Death Row. He's wrong. FBI agent Brad Wolgast thinks something beyond imagination is coming. It is. THE PASSAGE. Deep in the jungles of eastern Colombia, Professor Jonas Lear has finally found what he's been searching for - and wishes to God he hadn't. In Memphis, Tennessee, a six-year-old girl called Amy is left at the convent of the Sisters of Mercy and wonders why her mother has abandoned her. In a maximum security jail in Nevada, a convicted murderer called Giles Babcock has the same strange nightmare, over and over again, while he waits for a lethal injection. In a remote community in the California mountains, a young man called Peter waits for his beloved brother to return home, so he can kill him. Bound together in ways they cannot comprehend, for each of them a door is about to open into a future they could not have imagined. And a journey is about to begin. An epic journey that will take them through a world transformed by man's darkest dreams, to the very heart of what it means to be human. And beyond. THE PASSAGE.
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9780752883304 |
Publication date: |
12th May 2011 |
Author: |
Justin Cronin |
Publisher: |
Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) an imprint of Orion Publishing Co |
Format: |
Paperback |
Pagination: |
963 pages |
Primary Genre |
Horror and Supernatural Fiction
|
Other Genres: |
|
Recommendations: |
|
Justin Cronin Press Reviews
'Every so often a novel-reader's novel comes along: an enthralling, entertaining story wedded to simple, supple prose, both informed by tremendous imagination. Read 15 pages, and you will find yourself captivated; read 30 and you will find yourself taken prisoner and reading late into the night. It had the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve. What else can I say? This: read this book and the ordinary world disappears.' Stephen King
'Do not be put off by its size. This apocalyptic thriller is epic in scale, terrifying and totally absorbing. Stephen King loves it and the film rights have already gone to Ridley Scott. The hype around this book is extraordinary, but it absolutely lives up to every word. You will not be disappointed.'
W H Smith Fiction Buyer Sue Scholes
'Interweaving the stories of a six-year-old girl abandoned by her mother, a death row murderer and a Harvard professor on a dangerous trip into the South American jungle, this immense brick of a retelling of the vampire myth more than satisfied.' - Alison Flood THE BOOKSELLER
About Justin Cronin
Born and raised in New England, Justin Cronin is a multi-award-winning writer. He is Professor of English at Rice University, and lives with his family in Houston, Texas.
Author photo © Julie Soefer
More About Justin Cronin