Review

The Last Town on Earth
Thomas Mullen
Random House; 416pp

This stunning book succeeds on so many different levels one  doesn’t even know where to begin the praise.
The Last Town on Earth centres on the inhabitants of a small logging town in Washington and what happens when they take drastic measures (quarantine) to try and protect themselves from the virulent and deadly flu epidemic of 1918. When a deserting WWI soldier demands sanctuary, events are set in motion that change the town forever.
Although this is Mullen’s first published work, there are none of the usual verbal pyrotechnics or high-wire balancing acts one sees with beginning authors.
How refreshing to read a younger author who has already progressed beyond his ego and knows that it’s all about story, story, story. Mullen tells his tale cleanly, simply and plainly. I knew almost nothing of the flu epidemic of 1918 and even less about the political climate in the US during WWI. These are not subjects I would go out of my way to read about, but Mullen has made them compelling and interesting. In fact, the author’s voice has the same level of confidence and maturity that one only finds in writers with decades more experience — authors who earn your trust and confidence so early and easily that you completely relax into the writing and the voice. It’s already on my Ten Best List; I can’t imagine I’ll read 10 better books this year.
— Terry Goodman