Imagination and speculation – not everyday reality – inspire the characters and settings of these novels. They are available to borrow from the Lititz Public Library.
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
A girl’s world is thrown into upheaval when it is discovered that the Earth’s rotation has suddenly begun to slow, posing a catastrophic threat to all life.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Having lived in a monastery away from the violent upheavals of the outside world, a young man becomes one of a group of formerly cloistered scholars who are appointed by a fear-driven higher power to avert an impending disaster.
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Taking refuge in fairy tales after the loss of this mother, a twelve-year-old boy finds himself violently propelled into an imaginary land in which the boundaries of fantasy and reality are disturbingly merged.
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
Surviving a pandemic disease that has killed everyone he knows, a pilot establishes a shelter in an abandoned airport hangar before hearing a random radio transmission that compels him to risk his life and seek out other survivors.
11/22/63 by Stephen King
A high school English teacher discovers a portal to 1958 in the storeroom of the local diner and decides to travel back in time to prevent the JFK assassination.
Life after Life by Jill McCorkle
The residents, staff and neighbors of a retirement center share some of life’s most profound discoveries.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, two circus magicians unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance.
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Generations after leaving earth, a starship draws near to the planet that may serve as a new home for those on board but the journey has brought unexpected changes and their plans may not be enough to survive.
The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo
In an extreme welfare state that holds public health and social stability above all else, a woman’s growing addiction to illegal chili peppers leads her on an adventure.
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
In a world in which Alaska, rather than Israel, has become the homeland for the Jews following WWII, a detective and his partner investigate the death of a heroin-addled chess prodigy.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
An ordinary man, kidnapped and knocked unconscious, awakens in an inexplicably different world that offers an opportunity to explore the roads not taken.
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling
An electrical storm produces a blinding white flash that renders all electronic devices and fuels inoperable, leading to the most terrible catastrophe in the history of the human race.
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee
In a class-divided future America where urban neighborhoods function as labor colonies for elite villages, a female fish-tank diver leaves her home when the man she loves mysteriously disappears.
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
After witnessing the onset of an astronomical event that has caused the sun to go black, three friends learn that the darkness has been caused by a time-altering, alien-created artificial barrier and that the sun will be extinguished in less than forty years.
The Humans by Matt Haig
Regarding humans unfavorably upon arriving on Earth, a reluctant extraterrestrial assumes the identity of a Cambridge mathematician before realizing there’s more to the human race than he expected.
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
A contemporary historian and his physicist girlfriend become interested in a small German town that disappeared in 1349 and was never resettled.
September 16, 2016