The Last War

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

Brad is one of the few survivors of the bomb, not killed with the rest of his family and friends because by chance he was hidden underground in a cellar during the worst of the radiation fallout. Now he is healthy, though hungry, while everyone around him is slowly dying.

Brad, and for a time his friend Angel, live in a world ravaged by pet dogs gone wild, and fierce herds of savage rats — almost as savage as the few remaining people, some of whom have turned cannibal. The greatest good fortune in Brad’s life is the discovery of a case of dogfood. It may be true that, as one character claims, “Everybody wants to find a way to be the last one alive,” but an apocalyptic vision such as this might alter that determination.

The Last War is fierce, powerful and, perhaps, frightening reading for the young adults of “our next generation.”