Cal and Frida discover the Miller family homesteading nearby, but the elation they feel about their new allies is cut short when the Millers are mysteriously poisoned. The young couple settle in a small shed in the woods, nearly idyllic, if not for the slow burn of doom just outside its perimeter. In the aftermath of an unnamed series of cataclysms, Frida and Cal want to escape “L.A.’s chewed-up streets” and “parks growing wild in their abandonment,” with “its people starving on the sidewalks, covered in piss and crying out.” Escape they do, to an unnamed section of California full of lush forests and creeks spotted with a few homesteading holdouts. Lepucki focuses on the complexities of basic human emotions, testing allegiances and letting secrets unravel even the most steadfast of survivors, all while illustrating how impossible it is to change what inherently makes us human. In Edan Lepucki’s debut novel, “California,” young married couple Frida and Cal must navigate a post-apocalyptic landscape in a broken-down near-future.
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