Marlene Sales wants what all mothers want—for her children to be safe, healthy, and happy. That can be a tough order to fill even in the best of times, but like any good mother, Marlene does her best to be prepared for the worst. If her husband loses his job, her car breaks down, or the pipe under the sink bursts, it’s no problem because Marlene has a plan. However, she didn’t plan for the apocalypse. When a massive solar storm wipes out all the electronics on the planet, what follows is a complete breakdown of all communication systems. Violent fires and riots tear cities to pieces, while those who can’t evacuate huddle together in refugee camps. Marlene and her family find shelter with a squad of Army Corps Engineers who are working to repair a radio tower and restore power. While these soldiers are focused on getting the lights back on, Marlene has other priorities. She’s focused on dinner, bath time, and buying diapers. It might be the apocalypse, but this mom has a job to do: raising her kids right at the end of the world.

Marlene Sales wants what all mothers want-for her children to be safe, healthy, and happy. That can be a tough order to fill even in the best of times, but like any good mother, Marlene does her best to be prepared for the worst. If her husband loses his job, her car breaks down, or the pipe under the sink bursts, it's no problem because Marlene has a plan. However, she didn't plan for the apocalypse. When a massive solar storm wipes out all the electronics on the planet, what follows is a complete breakdown of all communication systems. Violent fires and riots tear cities to pieces, while those who can't evacuate huddle together in refugee camps. Marlene and her family find shelter with a squad of Army Corps Engineers who are working to repair a radio tower and restore power. While these soldiers are focused on getting the lights back on, Marlene has other priorities. She's focused on dinner, bath time, and buying diapers. It might be the apocalypse, but this mom has a job to do: raising her kids right at the end of the world.

Maternity in the Post-Apocalypse: Novelistic Revisions of Dystopian Motherhood deconstructs the ways in which women novelists have reconceived the post-apocalyptic genre in recent decades through narratives centered on heroic maternal characters. These writers have placed midwives, pregnant women, and mothers at the forefront of their novels, transforming them from the hapless victims of male oppressors to protagonists who are instrumental in transforming the post-apocalyptic social landscape from one that attempts to reconstruct a patriarchal past to one that safeguards, validates, and even lauds maternity as a form of empowerment. In a novelistic future devastated landscape in which human civilizations are shattered and waver at the brink of extinction, women who embody facets of maternity are taking the reins of rebuilding human societies by overturning patriarchal assumptions of femininity, reclaiming intersectional autonomy, and (re)visioning the possibilities for a declining anthropocene.

**NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JODIE COMER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, AND WRITTEN BY ALICE BIRCH (NORMAL PEOPLE)** “The End We Start From by Megan Hunter is a short, concentrated book—a shot of distilled story, like the pulp of a tale boiled to a thick spiced paste. . . . With passages from mythology interspersed with its imagined future, the book is engrossing, compelling and finally hopeful.” —Naomi Alderman, author of The Power “The End We Start From is a beautifully spare, haunting meditation on the persistence of life after catastrophe. I loved it.” —Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven Longlisted for the 2018 Aspen Words Literary Prize Finalist for the Barnes & Noble 2017 Discover Great New Writers Award An indelible and elemental debut—a lyrical vision of the strangeness and beauty of new motherhood, and a tale of endurance in the face of unimaginable change. In the midst of a mysterious environmental crisis, as London is submerged below flood waters, a woman gives birth to her first child, Z. Days later, the family is forced to leave their home in search of safety. As they move from place to place, shelter to shelter, their journey traces both fear and wonder as Z's small fists grasp at the things he sees, as he grows and stretches, thriving and content against all the odds. This is a story of new motherhood in a terrifying setting: a familiar world made dangerous and unstable, its people forced to become refugees. Startlingly beautiful, Megan Hunter's The End We Start From is a gripping novel that paints an imagined future as realistic as it is frightening. And yet, though the country is falling apart around them, this family's world—of new life and new hope—sings with love.

The first book in a trilogy. An immersive, first person point of view suspense story, of a mother in her mid-thirties after a global disaster. Marlene, is trying to protect her family and fine a safe place to live. A Coronal Mass Ejection triggered geomagnetic storms which caused massive destruction and the breakdown of society. Marlene and her family have taken shelter with other survivors; under the protection of a small group of soldiers. As winter is approaching, other bands of survivors turn violent, and desperation grows. Marlene must make tough decisions and face many dangers to keep her children safe. This is an apocalypse story for 30+ crowd. An exploration on how a mother might have to tackle the challenges of a disaster. What decisions she might face, how she might plan. The end of the world doesn't change a mother's job. Children still need to be fed, washed, and have a safe place to sleep. It isn't just a story for moms. Anyone who has ever wanted to see a strong mother fight for her kids will love this story.

From the author of How Should a Person Be? (“one of the most talked-about books of the year”—Time Magazine) and the New York Times Bestseller Women in Clothes comes a daring novel about whether to have children. In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation. In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti’s intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home. Motherhood is a courageous, keenly felt, and starkly original novel that will surely spark lively conversations about womanhood, parenthood, and about how—and for whom—to live.

Wife and mother. Teacher and musician. Marathoner and rock climber. At 66, Dierdre Wolownick-Honnold became the oldest woman to climb El Capitan in Yosemite--and in The Sharp End of Life: A Mother’s Story, she shares her intimate journey, revealing how her climbing achievement reflects a broader story of courage and persistence. Dierdre grew up under the watchful eyes of a domineering mother and realized early on that her parents’ plans for her future weren’t what she wanted for herself. Later, what seemed like a storybook romance brought escape, with new experiences and eye-opening travel, but she quickly discovered that her husband was not the happy-go-lucky man he had first appeared. Adapting as best she could, Dierdre juggled work and raising two young children, encouraging them to be fearlessly confident. She noted with delight how her “little lady” Stasia took it upon herself to look out for her baby brother, and watched in amazement as Alex (Honnold of "Free Solo" fame) started climbing practically before he could crawl. After years of struggle in her marriage and her ultimate divorce, Dierdre found inspiration in her now-adult children’s passions, as well as new depths within herself. At Stasia’s urging, she took up running at age 54 and soon completed several marathons. Then at age 58, Alex led her on her first rock climbs. A world of friendship and support suddenly opened up to her within the climbing “tribe,” culminating in her record-setting ascent of El Cap with her son. From confused young wife and busy but lonely mother to confident middle-aged athlete, Dierdre brings the reader along as she finds new strength, happiness, and community in the outdoors--and a life of learning, acceptance, and spirit.