The Nothing Within

Root is…different.

Cen­turies after the Reck­on­ing, a glob­al biotech plague, sav­age chimeras still threat­en human survival.

Though raised in a fear­ful soci­ety that reveres tra­di­tion and con­for­mi­ty, Root is irrev­er­ent, out­spo­ken, and deeply curi­ous. Her blind­ness sets her even fur­ther apart. After she hears a voice that no one else can hear, she flees into the wilder­ness. Out­cast and hunt­ed, she must con­front a dire threat to her people—and unrav­el the mys­tery of who she real­ly is.

In this “mag­i­cal, ter­ri­fy­ing, and whim­si­cal debut” (Pub­lish­ers Week­ly starred review), a biotech plague rever­ber­ates in Ohio Amish coun­try long after the near-extinc­tion of humankind. A young woman must try to save what remains of the human race. “Crafty sur­pris­es abound” (Kirkus Reviews) in this end-of-the-world adven­ture that’s “noth­ing short of a sto­ry­telling mas­ter­work.” (BlueInk Review in Booklist)

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Where this book came from…

The book begins: “My name is Root. I was sev­en­teen when I first heard the voice no one else could hear. I feared I might have the Noth­ing with­in me. But by the time my vil­lage burned me alive in the Pit? Well, gra­cious. By then, we were all pret­ty sure.

Some­thing very much like those first lines came to me while mow­ing the lawn one hot sum­mer after­noon. I want­ed to know what led up to that, and what came after. The only way to find out was to write the rest of it.

Awards & Reviews

Win­ner: Best Sci­ence Fic­tion Nov­el of 2020
Next Gen­er­a­tion Indie Book Awards

Win­ner: Best Sci­ence Fic­tion Nov­el of 2020
Nation­al Indie Excel­lence Awards

“This mag­i­cal, ter­ri­fy­ing, and whim­si­cal debut is a gen­uine­ly orig­i­nal and immer­sive take on post-apoc­a­lyp­tic SF.”—Publishers Week­ly (Starred Review)

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