Termush - Sven Holm

Termush by Sven Holm, foreword by Jeff VanderMeer, translated by Sylvia Clayton / ISBN 9780374613587 / 105-page paperback, reprinted in 2024 by FSG Originals

***

"A superb find . . . An addition to the post-apocalyptic canon that lingers disquietingly in the reader's mind . . . [A]survivalist variation on the hotel in The White Lotus . . . A travel guide to the world in which we are learning to live." -- John Gray ― New Statesman

"A classic: stunning, dangerous, darkly beautiful." -- Jeff VanderMeer

"Building with the nauseating, relentless compulsion of a tidal wave, Termush touches on something elemental and true." -- Kiran Millwood Hargrave

"Termush is like the Hotel California after the end of the world. A chilling and prescient tale about alienation - you can dodge the apocalypse but you can't escape yourself . . ." -- Andrew Hunter Murray

Welcome to Termush: a luxury coastal resort like no other. All the wealthy guests are survivors: preppers who reserved rooms long before the Disaster. Inside, they embrace exclusive radiation shelters, ambient music and lavish provisions; outside, radioactive dust falls on the sculpture park, security men step over dead birds, and a reconnaissance party embarks.

Despite weathering a nuclear apocalypse, their problems are only just beginning. Soon, the Management begins censoring news; disruptive guests are sedated; initial generosity towards Strangers ceases as fears of contamination and limited resources grow. But as the numbers - and desperation - of external survivors increase, admist this moral fallout, they must decide what it means to forge a new ethical code at the end (or beginning?) of the world ...