The Scream by Laurent Graff

The Scream

Laurent Graff

A book full of despair and strange happenings which the narrator and fellow survivors seem to take in their stride. The cause of the death - think an extreme form of tinnitus which tears at your very soul. Difficult to define the genre of this book - if asked, I'd say it's a mixture of contemporary, horror and science fiction. The story may have taken me an hour to read but its after-effects and final chapter will stay with me for much longer.

Extract
As the 'noise' became more oppressive and frightening, people started hitting the road in a panic, in an insane exodus, in search of a haven of peace. They fled either by themselves, with their families or in organised groups, some going one way, others going the other. How far they travelled didn't make any difference; they were trying to escape their own shadows. Groups of people started drifting along the roadsides, camping here and there. They were all running from their fears, led by an unlikely guide, a new messiah moved by the need to save. But far from weakening, the pain from the 'noise' was intensifying; families fell apart, groups split up as the kilometres passed. Hard shoulders and roadside ditches collected the remains of the unlucky ones, before they disappeared altogether . . .
Parallels
  • Happy Days by Laurent Graff
  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy