What would you do if every system on which modern life depends began to fail? Fast. Tomorrow.
When Brian Trent calls his retired father, one day in the near future, to say, “We’re going to the Farm,” William reacts with alarm. Because Brian, a top reporter for The Washington Post, is really saying that he believes the country’s economy is about to crash, and he and his family are heading for a sanctuary they’ve prepared in the mountains of West Virginia. William does not believe that America could come apart…until he sees it start to happen, with unbelievable speed, the very next day.
Tribulation: A Novel of the Near Future follows the troubled Trent family as they try to find their way through the ultimate collapse. Kathryn, Brian’s wife, just wants to live a normal life, and hates what Brian has been putting the family through to try to prepare for catastrophe. Too late, she finds out that clinging to normality in an unhinged world can get you killed. Daniel and Julie Trent are normal teenagers who are about to be challenged beyond anything they have ever imagined (losing cell phone service and the Internet is only the beginning). And then there’s William, the powerful patriarch, a skeptic about the prospects of collapse right to the end, who then becomes determined not only to survive against all odds, and to keep his family alive, but to find a better way of life on the other side.
Thomas A. Lewis is a veteran journalist (National Wildlife, Smithsonian, Civil War magazines) and broadcaster (Voice of America) who has written six non-fiction books, two of which received favorable critical attention nationwide. He became alarmed about the state of the environment while working as the executive editor of the Time-Life Books 16-volume series on the earth sciences, “Planet Earth,” and later when, as roving editor for National Wildlife Magazine, he traveled from Alaska to Costa Rica to chronicle the distress of animals and their ecosystems.
It was while writing “EQ Index,” an annual assessment of the US environment for National Wildlife and The World Almanac, that he began to suspect that pollution and exploitation of natural resources had reached a point of no return. That conviction led to his latest non-fiction work, Brace for Impact: Surviving the Crash of the Industrial Age and to the present work of fiction, which imagines how that crash might happen, and how an American family might deal with it. Lewis lives on a “sustainable-ready” farm in West Virginia where he has learned, he says, that “if my life depended on my skill at sustainable living I’d be dead now.”
[Available on Amazon.com and from any bookstore. Contact the author at tomlewis8657@gmail.com]
Critics nationwide are raving about Tribulation….
“Written with consistent grace and a clear passion for its issues, Lewis’ novel is often absorbing, perhaps due to the fact that the subject matter seems scarily close at hand. The book’s driving political critique is a thorough takedown of corporate statehood, blind wastefulness and human greed.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Tribulation is intellectually stimulating and raises difficult and unnerving questions. Smartly written and exhaustively researched…this intellectually stimulating take on the end of civilization is made more chilling by how easily it could all happen.
Frightening in its stark portrayal of the ills and errors of today’s world…makes interesting and fresh predictions about the ultimate fate of humanity following an apocalyptic event, one that gives the reader a sense of hope rather than dread.
Lewis’s meticulous attention to detail gives a level of suspense and reality to the novel, which will delight fans of the apocalypse genre.” – – Foreword Clarion Review
“A harsh, wonderfully written story of survival…reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984. The Trent family is …one of the most remarkable that can be found in near-future survivalist literature. Acclaimed author Thomas A. Lewis’s talent shines…a highly plausible scenario…a highly engaging must-read with classic potential.” — Penn Book Review
“Equally engaging and troubling…What is best about this novel is how Lewis utilizes his own intense study and knowledge of the subjects at hand to inform, as well as entertain, the reader.” –San Francisco Book Review
“The narrator is engaging, the language rich, the descriptions vivid and the book interesting … the moral and ethical questions raised here are important. — Portland Book Review
Praise for the earlier work of Thomas A. Lewis
“Brutally realistic…rich in political and military significance for our times.”
– The New York Times on The Guns of Cedar Creek
“A daring book…a terrific story and Lewis tells it with rare narrative skill…a superb writer.”
– The Los Angeles Times on For King and Country
“Gracefully and attractively written.”
–The Chicago Tribune on For King and Country
I haven’t read the book and Illl never will unless a used copy falls in my hands. But since the second part of a burglars Govement, and as a retiree . I´m 75 we decided we couldn´t afford living in our city apartment , we rented it and moved to the country where we owned 100 has, we sold half of it a buildt a wood and stone house – stone just lies around-we grow special veggies , no chemicals the rest we sell to a supermarket who resells it at double the price, we own a 4 year old truck in good shape and no debt we still have the net an cell phones though expensive. Our friends visit us more often and as few are asking if we would sell them a ha or two, In the whole we live a far better and low stress life than what we used to live.
This is Argentina a country that in the 1900 was supposed to be one of the three richest in the world
Mr. Lewis, where art thou? Been reading your blog for years now and it looks as though you have abandoned your post so to speak. Been a fan ever since I read Tribulation A book that gave me comfort gained from knowing that I wasn’t alone. I think you know what I mean. Please come back, Mr. Lewis. Let us bear witness to the unraveling together.
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from you Mr.Lewis. I hope you are well and wish you a happy holiday. Thanks for the fine journalism. I appreciate your work immensely.
Tom, it’s been a long while since we have heard from you. With so much to write about I can’t help but wonder if you are well. I’m so very fond of your work. Hope you are doing okay. Don’t think for a second that what you do isn’t important. Reading you keeps many of us sustained in this time of madness. please come back to us.