We Burned So Bright

The impending end of the world compels an older gay couple to take one last road trip in this melancholy outing from bestseller Klune (The House in the Cerulean Sea). A black hole has been inexorably approaching Earth’s solar system; roughly a month remains before it swallows the planet. After 40 years together, Don and Rodney have experienced countless highs and lows, and they face the coming apocalypse with relative equanimity. Nevertheless, they have a promise they need to keep in Washington State, so they set out from Maine in their dilapidated RV. The book plays out as an idiosyncratic travelogue as, along the way, they meet and swap stories with other people bracing for the end, including a nuclear family in Vermont whose kids don’t know what’s going on, the denizens of a hippie commune in Ohio, and a gun-happy young woman in South Dakota. The story is driven more by character than plot, proving the adage that what truly matters is not what happens but how it happens: Earth can be neither saved nor escaped; all Rodney and Don can do is choose how to spend their final moments. When the motive for their road trip is finally revealed in a bit of tragic backstory, the novel only gets heavier and more poignant. It’s both beautiful and bittersweet. Agent: Deidre Knight, Knight Agency. (Apr.)