The Last of the Light
Alexander Shalom Joseph
Orison Books
paper / 128 pp. / $20.00
Print ISBN: 978-1-949039-43-6
E-book ISBN: 978-1-949039-47-4Distributed to the trade by Itasca Books
952-223-8373 / orders@itascabooks.com
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
ABOUT THE BOOK
One Wednesday evening, the governments of the world send out a mass text message announcing that the world will end in one month. In the thirty days leading up to the last day of the world, our protagonist, a young man in his late twenties, has watched the love of his life leave, has lost his job and friends and sense of meaning, and has moved back home to spend his final weeks with his survivalist father, Jewish studies/author mother, and Yiddish-speaking grandfather. As everything draws to a close, the young man tries to make sense of faith, family, and how to live a worthy life even though it will be cut short.
PRAISE
"[T]he sincerity of Joseph’s debut is admirable, making it a rare artifact in contemporary fiction."
—Jewish Book Council
In this clear-eyed glimpse of what could well be the outcome of humanity's many follies, Alexander Shalom Joseph reveals a hidden heart of beauty and love that still shines amid the darkness, and a hope that the Righteous ones may yet prevail.
—Sean W. Murphy, author of The Time of New Weather
Through the pure strength of his writing, Alexander Shalom Joseph has made the end of the world both a melancholy and beautiful affair. The characters are brought into such stark focus, the reader is invited to the table to share in the stockpiled pickles, oatmeal, and cigarettes—to make sense of our own lives and to realize what's important too late or maybe just in time.
—Rachel Weaver, author of Point of Direction
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexander Shalom Joseph is the author of the short story collection American Wasteland, the prose poetry collections Broken Light in a Burning Wood and Our Mother, The Mountain, and the poetry chapbook Buttons and Bones. He works as a carpenter and lives in a cabin in Colorado.