The Book of M

Beautifully written, Peng Shepherd delivers an extraordinary story about love, hope, the unquenchable search for answers that may never come, and, ultimately, survival...The characters all have such depth to them that it's impossible to not become invested in the story, which twists and turns often. --TheRealBookSpy.com Shepherd's tale pushes the post-apocalyptic story in a new and exciting direction, making readers ponder questions about reality, self-perception and relationships. --Shelf Awareness This is an apocalyptic thriller with heart... The Book of M is devastating and inventive as Shepherd examines the value of memory, packing in imaginative twists as she goes. --USA Today Sheperd's debut is graceful and riveting, slowly peeling back layers of an intricately constructed and unsettling alternate future. --Publishers Weekly Eerie, dark, and compelling, this will not disappoint lovers of The Passage (2010) and Station Eleven (2014). --Booklist Reminiscent of books like Stephen King's The Stand, Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, and Michael Tolkin's NK3... she keeps the journey interesting, makes us care about her characters, and invites us to think about how we are all the stuff of dreams. --Toronto Star [Shepherd's] first novel, The Book of M, tells the fantastic story of ordinary people caught up in a catastrophe in which people lose their shadows -- and their memories. --Arizona PBS Outstanding and unforgettable...The Book of M is a scary, surprising, sad and sentimental story that will be deeply felt by readers while capturing their imaginations and hearts. --BookPage (Top Fiction Pick) Fans of Station Eleven, listen up!...This one is g-r-e-a-t. --Book Riot A beautifully written existential apocalypse, following everyday people on a search for love, memory and meaning across the richly realized and frighteningly familiar ruins of America. --Christopher Brown, author of Tropic of Kansas The Book of M is exciting, imaginative, unique, and beautiful. Shepherd proves herself not just a writer to watch, but a writer to treasure. --Darin Strauss, bestselling author of Half a Life A beautiful and haunting story about the power of memory and the necessity of human connection, this book is a post-apocalyptic masterpiece and the one dystopian novel you really need to read this year. --Bustle Captivating...Like The Passage and Station Eleven, this haunting, thought-provoking, and beautiful novel explores fundamental questions of memory, connection, and what it means to be human in a world turned upside down. --TheMarySue.com The Book of M shines consistently, first in the sense of magical wonder that permeates each of its pages, and second, in the emotional depth that Shepherd is able to draw out of her characters... brutal and brilliant in equal measure. --The Contemporary Clerk The Book of M tells the captivating story of a group of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary catastrophe who risk everything to save the ones they love. It is a sweeping debut that illuminates the power that memories have not only on the heart, but on the world itself. --TheNerdDaily.com For fans of Station Eleven, this summer release will have you engulfed from beginning to end. --Popsugar Brilliant debut... The Book of M is right up there with Station Eleven achingly beautiful literary novels about a changed world. --Refinery29.com First-time novelist Shepherd has crafted an engaging and twisty tale about memory's impact on who or what we become. For aficionados of literary dystopian fiction such as Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven or those who enjoy stories of cross-country travel. --Library Journal Prepare to fall in love with your own shadow. And to lose sleep. Shepherd is urgently good, and has written one of those books that makes you look up at two in the morning, to a world that's new, newly scary, and freshly appreciated: what all the great stories do. --David Lipsky, New York Times bestselling author of Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself and Absolutely American I was both disturbed and inspired by Max's and Ory's journey through apocalypses large and small. Peng Shepherd has written a prescient, dark fable for the now and for the soon-to-be. The Book of M is our beautiful nightmare shadow. --Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World It is an incredible concept, and she is a brilliant, brilliant new fiction writer. This is someone who you're eventually going to have on this couch--she's that good. --Brad Thor, The Today Show