36

This downbeat postapocalyptic novel attempts to be a thought-provoking philosophical study of human nature, but mostly instills a feeling of utter despair. It’s the middle of the 21st century, and the world has been turned upside down by a series of devastating attacks. Arabs have nuked Israel and enslaved the survivors in work camps and rape palaces, and attacks on the U.S. lead to repressive rule by a president who takes an oath “for the duration of the national emergency.” Eric Lonnrot, a Lutheran, approaches his friend Nahum Applefeld, one of the last free Israelis, with an unusual idea. Lonnrot believes that the world is faltering because the legendary 36 Righteous Ones, “whose existence justifies the world,” are dying off, and he hopes that if the survivors are found and protected, humanity can endure. As Lonnrot and Applefeld embark on their hopeless quest, Berman-Gorvine stays true to his bleak vision with explicit and distressing descriptions of “the Second Holocaust,” suicide centers, and global misery. (Apr.)