This World We Live In

Consider the moon: its wise and steady stare. How often do you stop to study it? 16-year-old Miranda Evans doesn't pay much attention to the moon until a meteor collides with it, knocking the moon closer to the earth and inducing a catastrophic change in climate. In Life As We Knew It, Miranda records a turbulent year in her life as she and her family struggle for survival in an isolated Pennsylvania suburb where disease is rampant, weather is unpredictable, electricity is a luxury, and food is increasingly scarce.

Last spring, author Susan Beth Pfeffer published a companion novel entitled The Dead and the Gone that examines the natural disaster from a different perspective. The Dead and the Gone introduces 17-year-old Alex Morales, who is left to care for his younger sisters after tsunamis wreck havoc on New York City.

This month marked the release of the third novel in this gripping science fiction series. In This World We Live In, Pfeffer brings Miranda and Alex's stories together. A year has passed since the meteor knocked the moon off course; and while much has improved, daily life is still marked by hunger and uncertainty. Miranda, her family, and a band of newcomers - including Alex and his sister, Julie - search for a sense of normalcy amid circumstances that are anything but normal. When life as you know it is destroyed, what remains? For Alex, all that is left is the dead and the gone, but Miranda believes in family...and love. As their feelings for one another deepen, Miranda and Alex are forced to face a new challenge: is it possible to foster romance and build an enduring love amid in a landscape of despair?

Intrigued by the science behind this fiction? Check out this book for a physics-grounded look at how various astronomical and environmental changes would alter life on our planet. And when you turn the last page, run to your window and check on the moon.

--Tracie