Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning this week is The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy, it was published by Hodder & Stoughton on 9th April.

 

She knows there is something wrong with the baby. She has known from the very beginning. First there was the nausea that left her bedridden for weeks, dizzy and barely able to eat, chewing on cucumbers, filling up on springwater. Then the surges in temperature, the blackening headaches. And finally a stillness inside her when there should have been movement - a fluttering, like the tail of a trout; that's what her friends told her - so that she would twist her body and prod her belly until the child adjusted itself, assuring her it was there, it was alive. 

 

 

Book Description:

One hundred and fifty years ago - when the world began to fall apart, when the flu mutated and millions began to die - downtown St Louis was fortified. There was no time for committees, for debate, for a show of hands. The flu was airborne. It was burning brains with fever, choking lungs with blood. And it was coming.

So the wall was built, and has remained ever since. St Louis - now called the Sanctuary - is humanity's last outpost on earth. Outside it is surrounded by a wasteland of dead scrub, inhabited by mutated creatures. Inside an oppressive government keeps the populace in its thrall.

But everything is about to change. One day a rider appears on the horizon with news of a green paradise far to the west. Determined to secure a better life, a small group of renegades set out on an epic quest across America's blasted heartland. They'll experience heartbreak, loss and unimaginable danger on their journey to the Pacific... and their safe arrival is in no way assured.