The Story
The year is 1918. America is fighting a war on foreign soil that has divided the nation. Meanwhile, rumors of the spread of the deadliest epidemic ever are causing panic on the home front. The uninfected town of Commonwealth, Washington, votes to quarantine itself, and two young friends are asked to guard the town entrance and keep strangers out.
One day, a starving, cold—and seemingly ill—soldier comes out of the woods begging for sanctuary, and the two guards are confronted with an agonizing moral dilemma.
About the Author
Thomas Mullen was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in the nearby suburban town of Barrington. A graduate of Oberlin College, he has also lived in Boston, in Chapel Hill, NC, and he now makes his home in Washington, DC, with his wife and son.
The Last Town on Earth is his first novel, and he is at work on a second. His employment history began, as so many do, with a teenage job at a certain evil fast food company, and went on to include such employers as a consulting firm, a senior-citizen-run thrift store, a research center on alcohol and drug addictions, and a small publisher of newsletters for esoteric industries such as medical rehab and mortgage banking.
When not reading or writing, his greatest interests are music, film, travel, and hiking.
Read The Daily News Profile story on Thomas Mullen
2011 Update
It took Mullen seven years to publish his first book. He’s released two in the past three years, beginning with 2009’s pulpy “The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers” and last fall’s “The Revisionists,” one of the most anticipated books of the year.
“The Revisionists,” Mullen says, “was a bit of a departure in that it was my first novel not to be historical.” The novel is set in contemporary Washington, D.C., where Mullen lived for seven years. The book dabbles in espionage and sci-fi.
“It was exciting to try something news, and I’m glad it received strong reviews,” Mullen says.
Mullen returns to historical fiction for his fourth book, expected in early 2013. The author is almost finished with the first draft. “And I’m very excited,” he says.
Link to the Author’s site
Awards for Last Town on Earth
Winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Excellence in Historical Fiction
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
One of the Top 50 Books of the Year and one of the Top 10 Debuts of the Year–Amazon.com
Best Debut Novel of 2006–USA Today
Click here for Photos from the authors’ visit
Click here for excerpts from interviews of Thomas Mullen for The (Batavia, N.Y.) Daily News
Other books by Thomas Mullen
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, Random House (New York), 2010
Revisionists, Mulholland Books, 2011
2011 Update
NOTABLE: It took Mullen seven years to publish his first book. He’s released two in the past three years, beginning with 2009’s pulpy “The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers” and last fall’s “The Revisionists,” one of the most anticipated books of the year.
“The Revisionists,” Mullen says, “was a bit of a departure in that it was my first novel not to be historical.” The novel is set in contemporary Washington, D.C., where Mullen lived for seven years. The book dabbles in espionage and sci-fi.
“It was exciting to try something news, and I’m glad it received strong reviews,” Mullen says.
Mullen returns to historical fiction for his fourth book, expected in early 2013. The author is almost finished with the first draft. “And I’m very excited,” he says.
2010 Update
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers was published in January 2010. Set against the bleak backdrop of Depression-era America, this is the story of Jason and Whit Fireson, a fictional pair of bank-robbing siblings and their flirtation with immortality.
