Murray State University

The Provost Office and members of the Freshman Reading Experience Committee are pleased to announce the selection of the 2010 Freshman Reading Experience Book.  The Last Town on Earth, a novel by celebrated author Thomas Mullen, will be highlighted during the August 16^th Great Beginnings Convocation.

The Last Town on Earth, Mullen’s first novel, is set in 1918 Washington State, with World War I raging abroad and the Spanish Flu epidemic wreaking havoc domestically. Like its real-life counterparts, the small mill town of Commonwealth attempts to quarantine itself from the disease, but finds itself confronted with ethical, moral, and social challenges when a cold, hungry, and possibly ill soldier appears at the town’s border asking for sanctuary.  Mullen’s novel, which was named the Best Debut Novel of the Year by USA Today, the Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, and the winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Historical Fiction, explores ethical decision-making, leadership, reactions to fear, human dignity, community interactions and responsibility, justice, and war and its accompanying reactions. 

Incoming freshman are invited to read the book prior to their arrival on campus this fall, but the entire Murray State University community is encouraged to read The Last Town on Earth.  On Monday, August 16^th, Thomas Mullen will be the keynote speaker at the New Student Convocation at 4 pm in Lovett Auditorium. From 1:30 to 3:00 pm, he will be meeting the public and signing books in the Clara M. Eagle Gallery. Additional events during the academic year will focus on the issues of decision-making, community, fear, epidemics, war, and justice explored in the book.

Copies of The Last Town on Earth are available in the Murray State Bookstore located in the Curris Center.