{"product_id":"9781101966839","title":"The Last One","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSurvival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Oliva’s fast-paced novel of suspense.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens—but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it man-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the life—and husband—she left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skills—and learn new ones as she goes.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying ways—and her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Sophisticated and provocative, \u003ci\u003eThe Last One\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel that forces us to confront the role that media plays in our perception of what is real: how readily we cast our judgments, how easily we are manipulated.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Last One\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“[Alexandra] Oliva brilliantly scrutinizes the recorded (and heavily revised) narratives we believe, and the last one hundred pages will have the reader constantly guessing just what Zoo is capable of doing to find her way back home.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A high-concept, high-octane affair . . . The conceit is undoubtedly clever and . . . well executed, but what makes \u003ci\u003eThe Last One\u003c\/i\u003e such a page-turner is Zoo herself: practical, tough-minded and appealing.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Oliva takes this (possibly) post-apocalyptic setting, grafts on a knowledgeable skewering of the inner workings of reality television and gives us a gripping story of survival. . . . This is the genius of Oliva’s storytelling. . . . [She] makes a stunning debut with this page turner, and becomes a writer to watch.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSeattle Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Oliva delivers a pulse-pounding psychological tale of survival. . . .  [She] masterfully manipulates her characters and the setting, creating a mash-up of popular TV genres: \u003ci\u003eSurvivor\u003c\/i\u003e meets The \u003ci\u003eWalking Dead\u003c\/i\u003e.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookpage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “The TV show \u003ci\u003eSurvivor\u003c\/i\u003e meets Cormac McCarthy’s \u003ci\u003eThe Road\u003c\/i\u003e in Oliva’s stellar debut. . . . Fueled by brilliantly intimate and insightful writing as well as an endearing and fully realized female lead, this apocalyptic novel draws its power from Zoo’s realizations about society and herself as she struggles to survive long enough to somehow make it back to her home.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Last One\u003c\/i\u003e seamlessly melds two of our contemporary obsessions—the threat of global catastrophe and the staged drama of reality TV—into a fiercely imagined tale of the human psyche under stress. This is an uncompromising, thought-provoking debut.”\u003cb\u003e—Justin Cronin \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e “Like \u003ci\u003eThe Hunger Games,\u003c\/i\u003e Alexandra Oliva’s novel is page-turning and deeply unsettling.”\u003cb\u003e—Rosamund Lupton\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Tense and gorgeous and so damn clever . . . I loved every second.”\u003cb\u003e—Lauren Beukes\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47300793794800,"sku":"9781101966839","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781101966839_p0.jpg?v=1763690021","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781101966839","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}