Hope and Salvation in the Post-apocalyptic Wasteland of Paul Auster’s In the Country of the Last Things

Genre Transitions in Contemporary Fiction, Selin Şencan, Editör, Cambridge Scholars Publishing Ltd, Newcastle Upon Tyne, ss.156-168, 2025

Part V, Post-Apocalyptic Geographies and the Ethics of Survival,

investigates how contemporary fiction imagines societal collapse and

explores ethical possibilities for survival in ruined environments. In chapter

eleven, Ercan Gürova analyzes Paul Auster’s In the Country of the Last

Things as a bleak vision of post-apocalyptic existence. The narrative follows

Anna Blume through a disintegrated city where moral codes, social

institutions, and physical infrastructure have vanished. Gürova highlights

how Auster constructs a space of total abandonment, marked by decay,

violence, and the erosion of human dignity. While survival is reduced to its

most basic terms, the novel does offer fragile signs of renewal, particularly

in the form of pregnancy and communal shelter. These fleeting moments

raise critical questions about whether post-apocalyptic fiction can envision

meaningful recovery or simply portray unrelenting decline.