10/23/08

Between the Covers

Fictional epidemic leads to moral dilemma

by Mary Burns

The Last Town on Earth

By Thomas Mullen

($13.95, Random House)

The gripping saga of World War I is enough to keep a nation standing on edge, but the United States has yet another enemy to contend with. The 1918 Spanish influenza has invaded the country, stunning cities with its savageness, charring the countryside with its scorn.

The town of Commonwealth, Washington, warily stands isolated from the deadly influenza, but the logging community is aware of the epidemic that has reaped its lethal effect on nearby communities. In a climate of fear, a town meeting is called. The decision is made to quarantine the town.

Armed guards are stationed at the only road leading to Commonwealth. It is assumed that passersby will heed the warning posted alongside the road and bypass the town altogether. But a weary soldier searching for food and shelter approaches the gate on foot, refusing to stop.

Shots ring out, blood is shed. The town comes face to face with an agonizing moral dilemma and the complex tensions between individual rights and group responsibilities.

Set against the backdrop of the Everett Massacre and the rural setting of our state’s logging industry, “The Last Town on Earth” will lead you on a tumultuous journey that is one town’s history and a 21st century fear.

Reviewed by RaeJean Hasenoehrl, freelance writer and author of Everett Fishermen (Images of America series), for The BookWORKS, in downtown Marysville or online at www.marysvillebookworks.com.