Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Lifestyle even as we Knew It all enthralled and devastated listeners with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event–an asteroid hitting the moon, leaving a tailspin of horrific weather changes. Right now this harrowing partner book examines the same occasions because they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eye of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. When Alex’s parents vanish in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must look after his two younger sisters, even while Manhattan becomes a lethal wasteland, and food and help dwindle.

With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores what sort of young man assumes unimaginable responsibilities.