The Last Wanderer is a novel of a professor alone in the northern Canadian wilderness when the world comes apart. Two years later, he returns to the United States to find ruin and few still alive. Traveling the interstates in a semi-tractor trailer, he finds some people alive who all die. Retreating north, he dies with a surprising conclusion.
The Last Wanderer. An unnamed young college professor goes on a summer adventure in northern Canada alone when the highly interdependent world comes apart and he is unable to return to find his sister and uncle after two years of fires and nuclear meltdown leading to nuclear winter and the death of almost all the inhabitants of the earth that he has known.
The unnamed wanderer returns to the Indianhead country of Wisconsin and finds no trace of those who he has lost. While finding wildlife are making a comeback, he finds no one alive and begins salvaging supplies and vehicles to begin his search for a safe place to live and find other survivors of fire, starvation, radiation, and disease. Instead, he finds a new Peterbilt 579 tractor with a sleeper that provides not only a safe place to sleep at night, but a means of traveling the interstate highways in search of others, like him, who may have survived somehow, what had killed all of the others.
The wanderer's lonely trip across country finds an unlikely old hermit, Charlie Weaver, and they bond in their effort to improve their lots and search for others, but Charlie is dying of lung cancer and there's nothing that the wanderer can do to save his life from ebbing to a close. The wanderer must go on alone.
The wanderer's search for warm winter quarters takes him to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he happens on another survivor, a teenage girl named Lisa Adams who survived because her father took such care to save her that it cost him his own life. Lisa, immediately falls in love with the wanderer in her own, naïve way. It isn't long before they are expecting a child and have found another survivor, Oscar Bradley. But Oscar, like Charlie, is dying from radiation exposure cancer and meets the same fate. Lisa's fetus is also affected, resulting in a stillbirth. And the stillbirth of their daughter leads to Lisa's death from that ill-fated accident and hemorrhaging.
Depressed and utterly alone, the wanderer is consoled by a capuchin monkey that the wanderer names Charlie after his friend and they travel the country looking for more survivors. Along the way, he saves a small German Shepherd mix puppy and names him, Rocky. Rocky and Charlie become helpful and loyal companions in the wanderer's travels. Twice, survivors are found, but they are hostile and the wanderer is unable to make contact. And then, like a miracle, the wanderer finds a commune with 47 people that have survived well, only to have them lost by a predictable, but tragic, natural disaster.
Left alone without hope and with the southern United States becoming more tropical and uninhabitable, the wanderer retreats to northern Ontario where he stayed the first two winters and where he finally lives out his life to a surprising conclusion.
Ronald W. Hull is the author of six novels, three short story books, and many poems on RonHullauthor.com. Dr. Hull has been paralyzed for over 50 years, is now a quadriplegic and writes primarily by dictation. Ron resides in Houston, Texas
Excerpt
You can sample the entire book in my Stories section here...
hI Ron , The story sounds very interesting . Perhaps in a way it might become a reality for us. The world is not heading in a good directionand i fear for our future in many ways. I am glad you are writing . it is such a great way tocommunicate with others. I am trying to get back to the den. Hang in there and keep going forward! Blessings , Mary grace
The purpose behind Ron books is not just entertainment. Through each book he tried to say something vital and it seems he got success so far in that. I wish more and more these types of books from him.
Love the premise of The Last Wanderer and excited by the prospects of how your literary imagination has shaped the novel as a whole. On one obvious level this appears to be a post-apocalyptic tragedy presented in individualistic style. I feel, however, there's a great deal more beneath the surface that makes this more than a worthwhile read. At any rate, I downloaded the sample pdf and am enjoying it. Always amazed and inspired by how prolific your pen remains.
Reviewed by sandra Maciejewski
8/11/2019
I enjoyed reading The Last Wandered by Ronald W. Hull, who happens to be a MHS 1961 graduate with me. We visited at 2011 50 Yr. MHS1961 Reunion - and have been in touch so know how hard he works on his writing.
While I would HOPE that we will not have an END OF DAYS situation to deal with in the United States - today's political unrest makes that a very possible option. I enjoyed Ron's use of Map Route and scenic locations as he traveled throughout looking for other living people Was pleased when he did find some - however situations did not work out - and actually alone.I don't think I would want to survive in such drastic circumstances - but he used many talents to survive for many years himself.
Glad to hear that earth would have chance to recover and offer LIFE - even if the people did not. Congratulations RON for your many publications! and Keep Writing.
Ronald Hull’s The Last Wanderer is a remarkable tale of survival in a post-apocalyptic world. One might begin by asking why anyone would choose to survive in such a world, with humanity on the brink of extinction and hazards looming everywhere. The answer, I think, is that the survival instinct is inborn. Dr. Hull’s hero shows amazing ingenuity in overcoming every obstacle in his path while exploring wide swaths of the North American continent, devastated by the effects of climate change and nuclear meltdowns. The few fellow human survivors he meets are soon lost to him, and even his animal companions fall by the wayside, so he must struggle on alone.
It might be too much to ask of our current leaders, but I wish they could be encouraged to read books like The Last Wanderer. They would no doubt point out that it is fiction, and angrily deny that the planet could possibly come to this. Worse, they would resent any implication that their poor stewardship might be responsible. But something tells me a scenario like this, with one environmental disaster triggering the next, is all too plausible, and might be closer at hand than we think.
Ronald Hull captures the imagination with this book about one man's journey across a land empty of its human population because of the finality of nuclear war and its aftermath. It is insightful and filled with wonderful moments when he makes a connection with other living things. You can feel the ache of his loneliness as he realizes he may never see another human being. You can feel his protective love of other creatures in the absence of human contact. It amplifies the importance of our web of family and friends, of even the basic connection with other thinking beings, and the loss when it is taken from us. It emphasizes the resilience of the planet and the reality that we are just one part of the life making up this world. Other animals and plants take back the asphalt paths and stone mansions we have built as life goes on. Ronald Hull has written a wonderful book.
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