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Book Cover for: The Passage, Justin Cronin

The Passage

Justin Cronin

Critic Reviews

Good

Based on 13 reviews on

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - This thrilling novel kicks off what Stephen King calls "a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction."

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NAMED ONE OF PASTE'S BEST HORROR BOOKS OF THE DECADE - NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR BY TIME AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post - Esquire - U.S. News & World Report - NPR/On Point - St. Louis Post-Dispatch - BookPage - Library Journal

"It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born."

An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy--abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape--but he can't stop society's collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.

Look for the entire Passage trilogy:
THE PASSAGE THE TWELVE THE CITY OF MIRRORS

Praise for The Passage

"[A] blockbuster."--The New York Times Book Review

"Mythic storytelling."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Magnificent . . . Cronin has taken his literary gifts, and he has weaponized them. . . . The Passage can stand proudly next to Stephen King's apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand, but a closer match would be Cormac McCarthy's The Road: a story about human beings trying to generate new hope in a world from which all hope has long since been burnt."--Time

"The type of big, engrossing read that will have you leaving the lights on late into the night."--The Dallas Morning News

"Addictive."--Men's Journal

"Cronin's unguessable plot and appealing characters will seize your heart and mind."--Parade

Book Details

  • Publisher: Ballantine Books
  • Publish Date: May 17th, 2011
  • Pages: 800
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.50in - 1.40in - 1.75lb
  • EAN: 9780345504975
  • Categories: Thrillers - SuspenseThrillers - GeneralLiterary

About the Author

Justin Cronin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage, The Twelve, The City of Mirrors, Mary and O'Neil (which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize), and The Summer Guest. Other honors for his writing include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Whiting Writers' Award. A Distinguished Faculty Fellow at Rice University, he divides his time between Houston, Texas, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"[A] blockbuster."--The New York Times Book Review

"Mythic storytelling."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Magnificent . . . Cronin has taken his literary gifts, and he has weaponized them. . . . The Passage can stand proudly next to Stephen King's apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand, but a closer match would be Cormac McCarthy's The Road: a story about human beings trying to generate new hope in a world from which all hope has long since been burnt."--Time

"The type of big, engrossing read that will have you leaving the lights on late into the night."--The Dallas Morning News

"Addictive."--Men's Journal

"Cronin's unguessable plot and appealing characters will seize your heart and mind."--Parade

"Cronin has given us what could be the best book of the summer. Don't wait to dive into The Passage."--USA Today

"Great storytelling . . . vital, tender, and compelling."--O: The Oprah Magazine

"Cronin gets it just right; the combination of attentive realism and doomsday stakes makes for a mesmerizing experience."--Salon

"Magnificently unnerving . . . A The Stand-meets-The Road journey."--Entertainment Weekly

"Imagine Michael Crichton crossbreeding Stephen King's The Stand and Salem's Lot in that lab on Jurassic Park, with rich infusions of Robert McCammon's Swan Song, Battlestar Galactica and even Cormac McCarthy's The Road."--The Washington Post