the end of the world is never really the end of the world, at least not in fiction. after all, someone must survive to tell the story. And what stories are they? humans have been pondering the end of existence for as long as we’re aware of it (probably, I mean, I wasn’t there) and as a result, we have a rich collection of apocalypse and post-apocalypse literature to read. during the senescence of our planet.
I’ve done my best to limit this list to books where there is, or has been, some kind of literal apocalypse, excluding dystopias (such as The Handmaid’s Tale) or simply bleak visions of the future. we could argue all day about what really constitutes an “apocalypse”: 2020 is ticking a lot of boxes, as you may have noticed, so for the most part, I’ve gone with my gut.
You are reading: Best post apocalyptic books
Of course, there are many more apocalyptic and post-apocalypse novels that don’t fit this list, and I haven’t read enough translated books in this genre, so as always, please add them to your favorites. in the comments.
(and stay safe out there).
john wyndham, the day of the triffids (1951)
It seems a little ridiculous now, or maybe just a little, but Wyndham’s apocalypse of killer plants and blinding meteorites is a classic for a reason: it’s a lot of fun. even arthur c. Clarke called it an “immortal story”. And he’s not as well known, but let me also slip his 1955 novel, The Chrysalises, here as a b-side.
richard matheson, i am legend (1954)
At this point, Matheson’s novel about pandemics, vampires, and zombies is more famous for being source material than actual material, probably because it’s packed with ideas. sometimes it’s amazing and sometimes it’s boring; the jury is still out on whether it actually works as a novel, but it definitely gets points for influence. and verve.
emily street. john mandel, station eleven (2014)
your favorite novel in which a flu pandemic wipes out civilization in a matter of weeks (ouch) and a group of artists roam the decimated earth, performing shakespeare plays for the survivors. it’s as nice as the stories about the apocalypse.
wilson tucker, the long and loud silence (1952)
everything east of mississippi has been destroyed by a nuclear attack; the few survivors have received a dose of a biological weapon that has infected them with the plague (just to be sure, I guess). A military border is established along the river to prevent the disease from spreading west, but this is a border Gary is determined to cross. Particularly strange and sad reading for a nation in lockdown, and proof that breaking it can have disastrous effects.
ling ma, compensation (2018)
the plague that ends the world in ma’s excellent debut is scarier because we’re all halfway there: when you get shen fever, you go about your business, doing your business, not much more like a zombie than you were alive, until finally you rot. is shen fever really just weaponized nostalgia? or comfort? Whatever it is, Candace is one of the few who is immune and documents New York City as it crumbles around her until even she is forced to flee.
david mitchell, cloud atlas (2004)
Of course, Cloud Atlas is not quite a doomsday novel, and in fact, of its six stories, only one could be considered post-apocalyptic (the other is totally dystopian). but considering the novel’s insistence on the interconnectedness of time and space (and people) and the centrality of the post-apocalypse it evokes (located at the pinnacle of the novel’s unique structure), I think it’s fair to tell here.
nevil shute, on the beach (1957)
It’s 1963 and a nuclear war has devastated most of the planet. in melbourne, relatively untouched, a handful of survivors wait for the winds to bring the radiation to their shore, occupying themselves more or less usefully, if such a thing can be said to have any end-of-the-world significance, as others investigate what may be a message from a survivor in seattle. a poignant classic, though not particularly scientifically sound.
walter m. Miller, Jr., A Song for Leibowitz (1960)
After civilization has been mostly wiped out by nuclear war, the few survivors become dedicated Luddites, purging themselves of all knowledge and eliminating anyone who wants to share or spread it. The only people entrusted with science are the monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz, who have vowed to protect it until humanity is ready for it again. the novel spans several thousand years, and the moral is: we will always destroy the earth no matter how many precautions our ancestors took. good.
tatiana tolstaya, tr. jamey gambrell, the slynx (2000)
two hundred years have passed after “the explosion”, and in moscow it always snows. benedikt is glad he doesn’t have any major mutations and one job, which is to transcribe the wasteland leader’s “speeches”, which are actually plagiarisms from old books, not a single one of which benedikt has read. until he meets the elders, whose secret libraries will change everything for him.
nnedi okorafor, who fears death (2010)
truly a fantasy novel (if these gender distinctions matter, which they don’t), but set in a post-apocalyptic sudan where onyesonwu, a child of rape and genocide, is born and hones her magical powers until she can fight back against his father. a great shocking novel that everyone should read.
hanna jameson, the last (2019)
We often think of the apocalypse as something that happens to everyone at the same time, but what about those in remote places who remain untouched at first? In this novel, the world ends while Jon is in a Swiss hotel, away from everyone he knows and loves. So what does he do? take care of solving the most immediate problem: the dead body on the premises. of course.
colson whitehead, zone one (2011)
the pre-eminent modern literary zombie novel, in which everyone left in manhattan is zombies, feral skeletons or cranky stragglers, or humans suffering from pasd (post-apocalyptic stress disorder) and our mediocre hero is one of the envoys from the band. to clean up the stragglers. a zombie novel for people who don’t read zombie novels and a literary novel for people who don’t read literary novels.
j. gram. ballard, the drowned world (1962)
my favorite ballard: a heady quasi-adventure novel set in a future where the entire planet has been transformed into a series of suffocating lagoons, a neotriassic landscape that horrifies and also paralyzes the survivors, beset by the dreams and strange impulses.
margaret atwood, oryx and crake (2003)
you can argue that the handmaid’s tale is as much an apocalypse novel as oryx and crake, and in a way i agree with you: an apocalypse of mind and morality rather than body and planet. but you know and I know what we’re doing here. furthermore, oryx and crake, though somewhat less celebrated, are just as good, a frighteningly plausible world destroyed by our relentless pursuit of happiness in a bottle. oh, and trust corporations. of course.
rumaan alam, leave the world behind (2020)
alam’s latest literary slash hit has what may be the quietest apocalypse on this list, at least from our point of view. We see almost nothing, getting only hints of the destruction descending on the world, and instead focus on the growing anxiety of two families, brought together by chance, as they try to make sense of what’s happening. which . . . This is probably how most of us will experience the apocalypse, when it comes. knowing this fact makes the novel even more chilling.
stephen king, the stand (1978)
a classic, and probably the best king novel (don’t come for me) is a giant (famously inspired by the lord of the rings) with many threads and characters, all set in a world devastated by a pandemic caused by a armed strain of influenza that is fatal to 99.4% of those who encounter it. so you may not want to read it right now!
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david markson, wittgenstein’s mistress (1988)
This isn’t normally talked about as a post-apocalyptic novel, and indeed it depends on how you read it, but let me present my case: if you take the narrator’s word for it, she is the last woman alive on earth, writing for keep busy, with no hope of ever meeting another soul. so something must have happened. The problem is: can you trust the narrator’s word? Either way, the novel picks up the same themes as many of the others on this list, albeit in its own experimental and literary form: what is left when there is nothing left? how should survivors live? what did our art, our science or our civilization mean? did it mean anything at all?
cormac mccarthy, the road (2006)
The first novel you (probably) think of when someone says “post-apocalyptic,” in which a man and his son travel through a ruined country that is never explained. weirdly punctuated, unforgettable, and something different for mccarthy, except in its uncompromising desolation.
octavia butler, parable of the sower (1993)
The best and worst thing about this novel is how close it feels to being possible (it’s set four years from now). runaway climate change, wealth inequality, and corrupt leadership have destroyed society for most people, who now live in guarded settlements or scavenge on roving gangs, and the new drug that turns you into an arsonist is just an extra fun detail. Of course, our narrator is affected by the worst thing that he could have in such a scenario, and also what he could save everyone: hyperempathy, which means that he feels the pain of others. a literary page turner of the highest order.
josé saramago, tr. Giovanni Pontiero, Blindness (1995; English publication 1997)
It doesn’t take a meteorite or a nuclear missile to destroy civilization; all you need is a surprise epidemic of blindness, and the men and women will destroy it themselves. Despite the compelling and experimental prose, parts of this one feel like a horror novel, but unlike most of the books on this list, it ends on a hopeful note, making it particularly good to read at this time. moment.
n. k. jemisin, the fifth season (2015)
This is another book that does not belong directly to the post-apocalyptic genre: there are elements of fantasy and science fiction here, although, as we know, all these borders are porous. what is certain, however, is that the events of the book take place after the apocalypse. in reality, they take place after multiple apocalypses, each one a devastating climate change that wipes out a good part of civilization. the characters in this book and its sequels are trying to survive after the apocalypse, of course, but they’re also trying to avoid the inevitable next one.
mary shelley, the last man (1826)
shelley’s first novel about a 21st century world almost completely devastated by the bubonic plague was presented as if it were simply a collection of prophetic writings he found and compiled into a novel. his contemporaries hated him. “It is as if the critics are trying to annihilate with his rhetoric the very possibility of writing a novel on this subject,” wrote Morton D. paley “the gender of the author, of course, was not saved.” it was described as “a disgusting repetition of horrors” and “the fruit of a diseased imagination and highly polluted taste”. . . which should make any modern reader excited to read it. luckily time passes (for now).
sandra newman, the star of the country of ice cream (2014)
in post-pandemic massachusetts, groups of children go berserk: children are the only human beings left, as they all now die of a disease called “twigs” by the age of 20. Unless, that is, our young ice cream heroine can track down the cure. this is a big, difficult, ambitious novel told in made-up apocalyptic language; It may not be for everyone, but for me it cements Newman’s status as an underrated genius.
max brooks, world war z (2006)
everyone’s favorite metafictional zombie apocalypse novel written by the son of mel brooks, whose framing device (brooks as a united nations postwar commission agent and his own real/fictional survival guide, interviewing survivors ) gives it a polyphonic resonance. don’t judge it by the movie, it takes serious liberties and it’s not great.
russell hoban, riddley walker (1980)
Very influential for its use of an invented dialect, this classic is set in England some two thousand years after the end of civilization as we know it, when what remains of society depends uncomfortably on “punch & pooty” showcases a layered Joycean masterpiece that is as much about the power of history and myth as it is about the end of the world and everything that comes after.
hayao miyazaki, nausicaä of the valley of the wind (1994)
Okay, technically this is a manga series, but I have it as a box and I’m counting it. i love miyazaki’s post apocalyptic world: most of the world is covered by a toxic forest, known as the sea of corruption, which itself is overrun by giant mutated insects and is invading, and its heroine, a curious princess turned in battle captain. with a deep respect for the natural world, corrosive as it may be.
waubgeshig rice, crusted snow moon (2018)
It’s almost winter, and on the reservation of a small Anishinaabe community in northern Ontario, the power has gone out. not only power, but also phones and the internet, resulting in total isolation. and it’s cold then the strangers start to appear. Fear and chaos reign as Evan Whitesky, a father of two, looks to the past, to tradition, to try to rebuild the future of his community. creepy in more ways than one.
edan lepucki, california (2014)
lepucki’s debut is probably most famous for being the book made famous by stephen colbert, but it’s also a seductive novel about love at the end of the world, although we never really know what exactly tipped our present towards this factionalism and covered in urine. future. It could be anything I guess.
justin cronin, the passage (2010)
one of the greatest and best contemporary vampire novels is also one of the greatest and best apocalyptic novels. It all starts in a lab, where a virus meant to create super-soldiers actually creates a plague of monsters. 93 years later, humans huddled together in colonies, hiding from hunters outside the walls. but can the world be saved after all?
anna north, pacific america (2011)
In about 70 years, North America will be frozen. the survivors of the last glaciation are grouped on a Pacific island; only the older ones remember life on the continent. But when his mother goes missing, Darcy has to uncover the secrets of the old world in order to analyze the disturbances of the new.
pierre boulle, tr. xan fielding, planet of the apes (1963)
You don’t find out that Planet of the Apes is a post-apocalyptic novel, and not just a sci-fi novel about another world, until the end of the book. (sorry for not warning you about this spoiler, but look, you were almost 60 years old.) what was the cause? oh, laziness, really…
megan hunter, the end we started from (2017)
fatherhood is kind of an apocalypse, yes, but… well, so is an underwater london. no food, no electricity, no internet; society begins to unravel, but even this can hardly distract a new mother from the magic of her child. Hunter’s sparse novel asks what to do with the first year of life (and the first year of motherhood) at the end of the world.
samuel r. delany, dhalgren (1975)
is it really a post-apocalypse where our protagonist walks through with only one shoe? Or are we dealing with a completely different reality? Either way, it feels like a desert land, with bombed-out, unconnected cities, huge red suns, inexplicable, endless fires. and either way, it’s one of the great rare, a highly influential and difficult, even impenetrable, cult classic.
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Ursula k. le guin, always coming home (1985)
“the people in this book could have lived a long, long time from now in northern california” is how this book begins, in slippery le guin style. the apocalypse of always coming home happened so long that none of the kesh remember it, not even their songs know what caused it. mostly what remains is Styrofoam. This is not a direct narrative, but a realistic anthropological study of a fictional people, the Kesh, compiled and annotated by a researcher named Pandora. In a way, it’s a minor work in le guin’s oeuvre, but a fascinating one.
david brin, the postman (1985)
the book begins sixteen years after the apocalypse (“it hardly mattered anymore what had caused it: a giant meteorite, a great volcano or a nuclear war. the temperatures and pressures became unbalanced and great winds blew”. long has changed for the survivors, but one thing hasn’t: the authority conferred by a uniform. Or so discovers gordon krantz (aka kevin costner, if you’re one of the 8 people who saw the film adaptation), a drifter and a high school student. time drama who dons a uniform and a mail bag he found in an abandoned postal service truck and begins to play the role of an officer of the “restored united states of america”, bringing hope to a population trying to get out of the abyss.
by the way, david brin had something to say about donald trump’s recent attacks on the usps. “We are in the midst right now of a worldwide oligarchic pressure attempt to reinstate feudalism, the failed model of government that dominated 99 percent of societies on six continents for 6,000 years,” he told ew. “the postman, both in the movie and in the book, talks about how essential it is for us to remember the things that bind us together. small town america is realizing that the post office really is the center of town, but will they realize it in time to make a difference? I don’t think trump cares any more if the republican party is torched in november. I think chaos is the goal.”
peter heller, the dog stars (2012)
In this surprisingly uplifting post-apocalyptic novel, a contagious disease called “the blood” has wiped out most of civilization, leaving those who remain desperate and territorial (not to mention standing six feet apart from each other). of others). “The ones that remain are mostly not nice,” says hig, our gentle hero. hig lives in an old airplane hangar with his dog and his friend bangley, who watches the perimeter, but after hearing a strange message on the radio, he finally sets off in search of other survivors, a final attempt at a better life.
lydia yuknavitch, the book of joan (2017)
In 2049, the world has been destroyed by global warming and war, and what remains of humans orbit their former home in a colony called Ciel, led by the tyrannical Jean de Men, extracting all they can from the rock. through “invisible technological umbilical cords”. a woman in ciel, soon to be 50 years old and therefore determined to be unnecessary and euthanized, tells the story of joan of dirt (since this is a riff on the story of joan of arc) , who is trying to save the world.
lauren beukes, afterland (2020)
In beukes’ fifth novel, it’s 2023 and a pandemic has left less than 1% of the world’s male population alive. one of them is cole’s 12-year-old son, miles, whom cole must protect at all costs, considering what nefarious minds, like his sister’s, could do with a child immune to the virus, so they realize on the run, thousands going like mila, hoping to make it home to johannesburg. like all beukes novels, it’s funny, clever, and slightly disgusting.
angela carter, heroes and villains (1969)
Years after the nuclear war, the world has grown forests over its wounds, animals run free, and humanity has divided into factions, if not variations: the professors, the soldiers, the barbarians, and the people . Marianne is one of the teachers and literally lives in an ivory tower with her father, until she runs away to experience life as a barbarian. As you’d expect from Carter, this is a concise, mythical, twisted take on the end of days.
jorge r. stewart, the earth remains (1949)
one of the classics of the genre, in which a student emerges from a period of isolation and illness (he was bitten by a sick rattlesnake) and returns to the world to find that there is hardly anyone left alive in it. . but humans, like any invasive species, will find a way, and so it finds them, and they build a community of survivors, new and old, but instead of rebuilding the world they knew, they must watch as the younger generation adapts and begins . to build a new society based on the world that remains.
jennifer marie brissett, elysée (2014)
In this surreal novel, two characters at the end of a destroyed world switch genders, roles, and relationships with each other as their lives are repeatedly reset by a mysterious and corrupt atmospheric computer program, who is searching (maybe) for a savior. .
peng pastor, the book of m (2018)
This novel includes one of the strangest epidemics in apocalyptic fiction: oblivion, which has ravaged the world by separating the afflicted from their shadows and their memories, causing them to behave erratically, even violently. As society falls apart, Ory and Max (one without shadows, the other not) try to find answers – and each other.
nick harkaway, the vanished world (2008)
if you like your post-apocalypse a little goofy, you might enjoy harkaway’s version, in which the “disappearance war” has left three-quarters of the planet’s population dead, or more specifically, “disappeared”. ,” i.e. it’s still there, but stripped of information, until it comes into contact with the mind of a survivor, that is. our hero is a kung fu trucker named gonzo and of course he must save what’s left of the world .
michel faber, the book of strange new things (2014)
In this novel, a pastor goes to another planet to spread Christianity, leaving his wife at home; what results, among other things, is that the apocalypse in this novel is telegraphed to the protagonist from a distance, through increasingly alarming and unbelievable missives, even as he finds himself drifting further and further away from the life he used to know and from the life he used to know. woman who used love.
daniel h. wilson, robopocalypse (2011)
For a little relief from nuclear war and pandemics, enter the robopocalypse, which, by the way, is exactly what it sounds like. It begins, of course, with a brilliant scientist and intelligent computer program, Archos, killing his creator and deciding that his purpose is to save the planet from the human race. archos spreads to machines around the world, which kill or enslave humans, until a few begin to fight back. Another breath of fresh air: this novel is told from the other side of the apocalypse, a reminder that these things can be reversed, at least sometimes.
pat frank, woe, babylon (1959)
In this classic nuclear holocaust fiction, when much of the United States is destroyed by the Soviet Union, a small Florida town survives, adjusting to their new life in a radioactive wasteland.
m. r. carey, the girl of all the gifts (2014)
When this novel begins, it is roughly a decade after the zombie apocalypse has left only a handful of uninfected humans in Britain; the rest are dead or infected, “empty houses where people used to live” known as “hungry”. however, enough time has passed for there to be a second generation of Hungry: children who are preternaturally intelligent, absurdly strong, and capable (perhaps) of human empathy. unless they smell human, that is. so they want to eat it. The remaining human scientists are torn: try to open up Melanie’s namesake brain to figure out how it works? Or do you treat her like a child and hope that she can bring the world back to humanity that way?
robert r. mccammon, swan song (1987)
a horror novel and an apocalypse novel in one, as if surviving the nuclear holocaust wasn’t enough, now there’s a demonic entity known as the man with the scarlet eye, aka doyle, running around. typical.
sarah pinsker, a song for a new day (2019)
oh strange, a novel in which a series of terrorist attacks, mass shootings, bombings, and then a pandemic, has resulted in widespread fear, consolidation of corporate power, and an end to all public gatherings. so unrealistic, amirite? However, instead of Zoom, Luce and her bandmates have to deal with Stageholo, basically a holographic pay-per-view for concerts, and her talent scout Rosemary, who has never known the world before. Like all the best apocalyptic fiction, this is really a book about human connection; the fact that it’s also a cool, queer rock and roll novel is just a bonus.
c.a. fletcher, a boy and his dog in the end of the world (2019)
just what it says on the tin. the boy (griz) and the dog (jip) are among the survivors after the “soft apocalypse” known as the gelding, which castrated most of the world. When Griz’s other dog (Jess) is stolen, Griz and Jip must go on a rescue mission through the ruins of Scotland.
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