NOT WITH A BANG

As a rogue planet draws near Earth, life in London proceeds as normal—until it doesn’t.

The eldest of the four Minton sisters, 22-year-old Aaliyah is getting married, exposing rifts in the family—the ways they’ve drifted apart and failed to communicate. But the rushed wedding is about to become the least of their concerns, because the planet Hero is moving closer to Earth, and though scientists have assured the public there will be no collision, Hero will cause problems no one has been able to predict, though father Marcus Minton has tried his best with prepping and drills for the collapse of civilization. When calamity strikes, the family is separated. Sixteen-year-old Tanice and Chantale, the baby of the family at 7, are stranded, trapped at the wedding venue; Aaliyah, 17-year-old Briar, and their mother, Kim, a doctor, are on the road; and Marcus is alone on the streets, searching for his family. As everyone tries to reconnect physically, they each face their own secrets and the separate paths they’ve taken. Briar falls in with a cult receiving messages from aliens, Aaliyah and Kim attempt to put Kim’s medical knowledge into practice, and Marcus tries to atone for past mistakes. While the book is set at the end of the world, the apocalypse is only a backdrop for an exploration of the relationships among the Mintons and of their inner worlds. Touching on race relations, policing, bad decisions, and more, this is a breathtaking work that uses the tropes of science fiction and apocalyptic thrillers to deliver an exploration of a family of sisters growing up and of parents simultaneously pulling away and holding on. Told in a confident, lyrical voice with a sharp focus on characters and society, this narrative reveals that no matter how alien the circumstances, we will always be human.

An out-of-this-world tale grounded in day-to-day realities.