THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

This paranormal thriller, originally published in 1991, follows an offbeat hero through decades of government, military and scientific intrigue.

While buying a ring at Tiffany’s for the woman he hopes to marry, Louis McDonald sees a vision from the past: Anna Marie Ferrara, his childhood love who disappeared. The book then begins a flashback that takes up most of the novel. Anna Marie, the daughter of a strict Italian national McDonald calls simply “the Signora,” works intimately with Enrico Fermi and a distasteful man called Dorpheimer on the Manhattan Project. Stationed at Lauderdale naval base during World War II, McDonald exchanges coded letters about the project with Anna Marie. Then he misses a flight by accident, and several planes bound for the Bermuda Triangle vanish. In the resulting trials, suspicion falls on McDonald, who in turn smells a coverup. During this time, McDonald makes two unlikely friends: Bertie, a psychiatrist who treats McDonald and later takes him on a tour of New York’s seedy sex clubs; and Pop Beans, a conspiracy theorist who gets McDonald a job covering unexplained phenomena for the New York Times. Over the next two decades, the list of mysterious happenings grows: human disappearances, UFO sightings, high-security government buildings with seemingly nothing inside and the sudden reappearance of a still-youthful Anna Marie. The reasons for these occurrences are revealed near book’s end. A few factual errors and exaggerated stereotypes–Southerner Pop Beans’ habit of using “y’all” to refer to the one person he is addressing, for instance–distract. Still, symbolic themes–like McDonald’s connection to Frank Baum’s Oz books–add to the sense of tension and resolution. As for the paranormal phenomenon on which the book centers, Young leaves some questions unanswered.

A paranoia-validating novel for conspiracy enthusiasts.