THE DOG STARS W.UKRAIŃSKA, PETER HELLER

After a pandemic of an unknown flu that wiped out nearly all of humanity, the world was left deserted. Only the wind blowing over the runway in Colorado, an old plane, and a dog named Jasper remind Higo, a former pilot, that he is still alive. Together with his silent, heavily armed neighbor, Higo defends himself against looters and that deafening silence that slowly erodes his memoryhis last line of defense against oblivion. Higo flies. He rises into the sky to escape, if only for a moment, from his losses, from memories of his wife, from a world where grief never lessens, only changes form, and sorrow underlies everything, like water. He carefully counts his fuel, carefully measures out his hope. And one day, through the static of the radio waves, he hears something he shouldnt have. A voice. Perhaps a coincidence. Perhaps a trap. Or maybeproof that life still smolders somewhere else.