The Thirteenth Cat

Imprisoned in the remains of an automobile from the "good times", three travelers wait through the night, held captive by a band of pyromancers. The "Fire Boss" squats beside a pyre, observing the manner in which the flames consume the human offering, the way the smoke curls into the dark sky, the arrangement of the ashes. What the fire tells him will determine the fate of the travelers. Will they be allowed to go on their way in the morning? Or will one of them - or all of them - be selected as the next offering?

BIRDS OF PASSAGE is set twenty years after the events of Morgan Nyberg's post-apocalyptic novel SINCE TOMORROW. Frost's farm, the setting of that novel, is in severe decline. If a better site for the farm is not found, the few remaining residents will soon be wiped out by the diseases ravaging the denizens of nearby Town.

Frost's great-grandson, Fraser, heads into the coastal mountains of British Columbia with a few companions, hoping to find a new site for the farm. Following them is Fraser's father, Blaine, alcoholic, syphilitic, deranged, determined in his delusional way to protect his son.

When Blaine appears at the settlement of the pyromancers, will he somehow rescue Fraser and his companions? Or will he turn this predicament - and the other calamities encountered on the trip north - from bad to worse?

BIRDS OF PASSAGE contains no commentary, no explanation. It is all showing, no telling. Morgan Nyberg's lucid and hypnotic prose compels the reader through scenes of danger, horror, despair, humour, deep love and unbearable personal conflict as Fraser and his companions struggle through apocalyptic landscapes natural and man made, never quite giving up hope for a better life.

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The Thirteenth Cat

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