The Pesthouse was published by Picador in 2007. The setting is a future America — perhaps centuries from now — where civilization has collapsed. The population is sparse, technology has regressed to the pre-industrial, and survivors make their way eastward toward the coast, hoping to find passage on ships to Europe — reversing the historical pattern of immigration. America, once the destination of the world’s hopeful, has become the place people leave.
Franklin Lopez, a young man traveling east with his brother, is separated from his companions when a toxic gas event destroys a valley settlement. He encounters Margaret, a red-haired woman quarantined in a hilltop pesthouse (a shelter for the sick), and together they travel toward the coast. Their journey is a picaresque through a landscape of danger, kindness, and improvisation — medieval in its social structures, American in its geography.
Crace deliberately inverts the foundational American narratives: the westward journey becomes eastward, the frontier becomes a trap rather than a promise, and the dream of starting over gives way to the simpler dream of survival. The novel is gentler than some of Crace’s work — Franklin and Margaret are sympathetic, their love story is tender — but the devastation of the setting provides its own bleakness.
Collecting The Pesthouse
First edition (Picador, London, 2007): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $20–$50
- Very good: $10–$20