The Last Day

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

*Narrated by Gemma Whelan*

A WORLD HALF IN DARKNESS. A SECRET SHE MUST BRING TO LIGHT.

2059. The world has stopped turning.

One half suffers an endless frozen night; the other, nothing but burning sun.

Only in a slim twilit region between them can life survive.

In an isolationist Britain, scientist Ellen Hopper receives a letter from a dying man.

It contains a powerful and dangerous secret.

One that those in power will kill to conceal...
'A beautifully realised and thought-provoking thriller.' THE TIMES

'A taut, thrilling runaround' GUARDIAN

'Reminiscent of Robert Harris's high-concept conspiracy thrillers' FINANCIAL TIMES

© Andrew Hunter 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critics Review

I read this hungrily ... Its intelligence and bravura characterization will have you turning page after page. A fabulous achievement.
STEPHEN FRY
A brilliantly clever thriller from a brilliantly clever writer.
Richard Osman
Murray should be commended for going into the nitty-gritty of how his post-disaster society functions[…] What really distinguishes the book, though, is the creative energy of its world-building: it demonstrates the virtue of using the future as a playground for the imagination rather than trying to second-guess it.
Telegraph: the best thrillers and crime fiction of 2020
A taut, thrilling runaround... The Last Day is an impressive dystopian techno-thriller. Murray paints a grim picture of a draconian isolationist Britain, with some vivid descriptions of a much-changed London, and the novel’s climax has a neat twist.
Guardian Books of the Month
A brilliant debutwhich blends apocalyptic drama with a tale of espionage, keeping readers on tenterhooks […] Fans of Robert Harris will love it.
Daily Express
A stunningly original thriller set in the world of tomorrow that will make you think about what’s happening today.
HARLAN COBEN
A fresh take on the dystopian thriller, to say it’s gripping is an understatement - I cancelled all my weekend plans to finish it
SARA PASCOE
[A]n atmosphere reminiscent of PD James’s dystopian classic The Children of Men and alternative history thrillers such as Len Deighton’s SS-GB. As with those novels, The Last Day investigates the “boiled frog” nature of totalitarianism, with Hunter Murray imagining what Britain succumbing to it would look and feel like. The result is a beautifully realised and thought provoking-thriller.
The Times, Thriller of the Month
Dark, believable and brilliantly written
JENNY COLGAN
A thrilling page-turner, and a reminder to treasure our sunsets and sunrises while we still have them. I couldn’t put this book down!
Christina Dalcher, author of VOX

User Reviews

Book 5.0
Narration 4.5
5.0
4.0
Hattie 22/08/2025
5.0
5.0
Uncomfortable subject, bleak but full of interesting people and so beautifully written

I also loved the narration, warm and subtle
fluentindothraki 21/07/2024

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