Termush (Faber Editions)

Introduced by Jeff VanderMeer, welcome to a luxury hotel at the end of the world in this post-apocalyptic 1967 dystopia ...

'Chilling and prescient.' - Andrew Hunter Murray
'Elemental and true.' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
'Mesmerizing ... Terrifyingly real.' - Sandra Newman
'Like someone from the future screaming to us.' - Salena Godden

The day we came up from the shelters four people were found dead on the steps of the hotel.

Welcome to Termush: a luxury coastal resort like no other. All the wealthy guests are survivors: preppers who reserved rooms long before the Disaster. Inside, they embrace exclusive radiation shelters, ambient music and lavish provisions; outside, radioactive dust falls on the sculpture park, security men step over dead birds, and a reconnaissance party embarks.

Despite weathering a nuclear apocalypse, their problems are only just beginning. Soon, the Management begins censoring news; disruptive guests are sedated; initial generosity towards Strangers ceases as fears of contamination and limited resources grow. But as the numbers - and desperation - of external survivors increase, they must decide what it means to forge a new moral code at the end (or beginning?) of the world ...

Translated by Sylvia Clayton

About the Author

Sven Holm (1940 - 2019) was a celebrated Danish author and playwright. He made his debut as a 21-year old with an acclaimed story collection in 1961. In 1974, he was awarded the Grand Prize of the Danish Academy, where he was made a member in 2001, the same year he won the Danish Critics Prize for Literature. He was awarded the Holberg Medal in 1991.