Birmingham, 35 Miles
by James Braziel
Review by Alana Hurley
Bantam Paperback ISBN/ITEM#: 9780553385021
Date: 26 February 2008 List Price $12.00 Amazon US / Amazon UK / Show Article /
"The government's not going to save anybody." Braziel's novel Birmingham, 35 Miles asks what the government would do if a catastrophic ozone tear started reducing the southern United States to uninhabitable desert. The answer? The government would cope just as well as it did during the Dust Bowl and Hurricane Katrina: badly, late, and with a lot of casualties. From official release/information:
Book Description: When the ozone layer opened and the sun relentlessly scorched the land, there was nothing left but to hope. Mathew Harrison had always heard of a better life as close as Birmingham, only thirty-five miles away -- zones of blue sky, wet grass, and clean breathable air. But to him it's a myth, a place guarded by soldiers, off limits to all but the lucky few. Meanwhile Mat works alongside his father, mining only the red clay that the once fertile Alabama soil can offer.
Now, with the killing deserts on the move again and the woman he loves on a Greyhound heading north, Mat has a travel visa and every reason to leave. But his roots in this lifeless soil inexplicably hold him firmly to the past. Torn between hope and resignation, with time running out, Mat must make a fateful choice between a new life and the one that isn't ready to let him go.