Alas, Babylon

This true modern masterpiece is built around the two fateful words that make up the title and herald the end - “Alas, Babylon.” When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly.

But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness. Will Patton's narration paints this classic tale as an ominous picture of the terrible possibilites of the nuclear age.

©1959 Harry Hart Frank (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

• Audie Award Winner, Fiction, 2012

"An enthralling and vivid story of the follies and failures of people, their courage and cruelty, their treachery and triumphs. Mr. Frank is a magnificent writer." ( Chicago Sunday Tribune)

"A warm, continuously interesting story of what can happen to a group of ordinary people in a perilous situation." ( New York Herald Tribune)

“Will Patton is a calm and steady narrator whose quiet intensity wraps around this post-apocalyptic saga...He reflects the tones of deference of women to men, nonwhites to whites, and children to adults. In a conversational tone, he quietly brings the characters and their relationships to life.” ( AudioFile)

Doesn't Seem Possible that This Is 1959!

What did you love best about Alas, Babylon?

I was resistant to trying this title because I always pick up on outdated technologies in a book and they don't ring true. I needn't have worried. This book is stunning and never for one second did I even realize that this wasn't present day America. Frank sticks to human nature as he explores a post-apocalyptic future, and human nature is the same generation to generation.

What other book might you compare Alas, Babylon to and why?

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is another view of a civilization gone awry, but with a different conclusion. Frank's account relies on the strength of human goodness to build a brighter outcome. We don't known which vision will ultimately be more realistic until the time comes.

What does Will Patton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I loved the narration of this book. Will Patton's everyman style of delivery was a perfect fit for the setting--small town USA. The characters came alive.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I felt deeply for the characters and looked forward to a conclusion which would bring them some relief from the unknown.

Any additional comments?

I'm still impressed that I read this fifty years after it was written and it was as fresh and insightful as if it had been written yesterday. That's the best compliment I can give an author. A timeless work of fiction that will leave you thinking about the past and the future and what your reaction would be to a similar emergency. A hopeful read.

Essential but Antiquated

This book deserves its place as an Audible Essential, and has aged pretty well, if you don’t mind a little 1950’s sexism. Today there have been many post-nuclear war novels, many quite a bit better than this, but this is one of the very first, and I give it some historical credit for helping transform the idea of nuclear war to the unthinkable. The narration is excellent adding a lot of feeling to the protagonist. The characters and story are pretty simplistic yet nostalgically touching. The story does not have much action (other than a bunch of nudets) and all the problems are now standard post-apocalyptic fare. You can see the strong influence this book had on later novels, like One Second After. I likely won’t read this again, but I am glad to have heard it.

Remember it well

I read this book when I was in 7th grade and it had a great impression on me. I had been looking for the book (it went in and out of print over the years) and was shocked when Audible.com advertised the now had an audible book. Will Patton does more than narrate; he makes it more like listening to a radio drama. I believe this book came out in 1959 (the year my parents bought a Plymouth with huge fins) and everything about nuclear war was interesting to a 13-year old. This was only several years before the Cuban Missile Crisis and I remember how scary that was.

Great. Realistic human reactions

I liked this book so much that I bought a whole lot of other books about the end of the world. Unfortunately they were not as good. Then I listened to this again and loved it all over again.

Breathtaking in its clarity of vision

It's shocking and amazing that such a carefully woven tale filled with nuanced predtictions of a post-apocalypse world could have been created so early in the cold war, by a single author with no specific training in the field. Give and take a few technical changes, this story could easily be told today. It's very entertaining, credible, and the narrator does a fantastic job in bringing the characters to life. The survivalist technocrat will enjoy the clever predictions and modeling of a town cut off, while everyone else will enjoy and relate to the very human tale of a population under extreme stress. Highly recommended. I've listened to the whole thing three times now. Bravo to the Audible team for finding this gem.