Far North — Marcel Theroux

Out on the far northern border of a failed state, Makepeace--sheriff and perhaps the last citizen--patrols the city ruins, salvaging books but keeping the guns in good repair.

Into this cold land comes shocking evidence that life might be flourishing elsewhere: a refugee from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to reconnect with human society and take to the road, armed with rough humor and an unlikely ration of optimism.

What Makepeace finds is a world unraveling, stockaded villages enforcing an uncertain justice, and hidden work camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeace's journey--rife with danger--also leads to an unexpected redemption.

Far North takes the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanity's origins to its possible end. Haunting, spare, yet stubbornly hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the world's fragility and beauty, and its ability to recover from our worst trespasses.