I picked this book because I was doing a reading challenge and we got extra points for long books. I am so glad that this is the one I randomly chose. It was so good. The basics are that something has happened to the earth. We assume it's the atomic destruction that everyone was afraid of in the 1980s (this book was written in 1987). We don't ever find out exactly what it was that triggered the first bomb, but clearly all of the US was bombed and affected by the radiation. We meet four different people before the bombs go off, and we follow them through the bombing and then through the next seven years of their lives after the bombing.
Sister, a "bag lady" in NYC. Sue Wanda (Swan), a 9 yr old girl in the middle of Kansas. Josh, a professional wrestler driving to his next match. And Roland, a young teenager going with his parents to stay in an underground bunker.
Not only do we follow them through everything that happens next, but we learn to love some of them and despise some of them through the course of the journey. It was a wild ride with almost nonstop action. I loved switching between the different stories and how they all twined together in different parts of the book. This was a wonderfully epic journey and I'm so glad I jumped on for the ride!