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Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Olivaâs fast-paced novel of suspense.She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far.  It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happensâbut how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it man-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of themâa young woman the showâs producers call Zooâstumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game.  Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the lifeâand husbandâshe left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skillsâand learn new ones as she goes.  But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying waysâand her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing.  Sophisticated and provocative, The Last One is a novel that forces us to confront the role that media plays in our perception of what is real: how readily we cast our judgments, how easily we are manipulated.  Praise for The Last One  â[Alexandra] Oliva brilliantly scrutinizes the recorded (and heavily revised) narratives we believe, and the last one hundred pages will have the reader constantly guessing just what Zoo is capable of doing to find her way back home.ââWashington PostâA high-concept, high-octane affair . . . The conceit is undoubtedly clever and . . . well executed, but what makes The Last One such a page-turner is Zoo herself: practical, tough-minded and appealing.ââThe GuardianâOliva takes this (possibly) post-apocalyptic setting, grafts on a knowledgeable skewering of the inner workings of reality television and gives us a gripping story of survival. . . . This is the genius of Olivaâs storytelling. . . . [She] makes a stunning debut with this page turner, and becomes a writer to watch.ââSeattle TimesâOliva delivers a pulse-pounding psychological tale of survival. . . .  [She] masterfully manipulates her characters and the setting, creating a mash-up of popular TV genres: Survivor meets The Walking Dead.ââBookpage  âThe TV show Survivor meets Cormac McCarthyâs The Road in Olivaâs stellar debut. . . . Fueled by brilliantly intimate and insightful writing as well as an endearing and fully realized female lead, this apocalyptic novel draws its power from Zooâs realizations about society and herself as she struggles to survive long enough to somehow make it back to her home.ââPublishers Weekly (starred review) âThe Last One seamlessly melds two of our contemporary obsessionsâthe threat of global catastrophe and the staged drama of reality TVâinto a fiercely imagined tale of the human psyche under stress. This is an uncompromising, thought-provoking debut.ââJustin Cronin  âLike The Hunger Games, Alexandra Olivaâs novel is page-turning and deeply unsettling.ââRosamund Lupton  âTense and gorgeous and so damn clever . . . I loved every second.ââLauren Beukes
Hardcover:
9781101965085 | Ballantine Books, July 12, 2016, cover price $26.00 | About this edition: Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Olivaâs fast-paced novel of suspense.
CD/Spoken Word:
9780147522641 | Unabridged edition (Random House, July 12, 2016), cover price $40.00
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