![]() He is snobbish and self-important, and he overreacts in many of his daily encounters. In the telling, Edgar, a retired teacher who came into a sizable inheritance, has set up a nice life for himself, buying a parcel of land with a meadow and yew trees in the village of Beadle, seventy miles from London, and becoming a poultry-breeding expert. “The Hopkins Manuscript” is a chronicle that Edgar leaves behind for future explorers to explain what the world went through after the earth collided with the moon. The reader knows from the book’s framing foreword that Edgar and, in fact, all of Western civilization, have perished. ![]() And yet, despite the stark contrast between the two books, and despite the fact that I read very little sci-fi, I could not put this one down. The Hopkins Manuscript is a work of science fiction with a single main character, the somewhat pompous Edgar Hopkins, who is confronting an unthinkable doomsday scenario. Fortnight is a quiet, sweet novel that focuses on a family’s seaside vacation in England and provides a tender escape for the reader. The two books couldn’t be more different from one another. ![]() ![]() Sherriff was one of my favorite books I read last year, so I jumped at the chance to read Sherriff’s The Hopkins Manuscript, originally published in 1939. He lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with his wife and two daughters. He is the author of A Little Hope and A Quiet Life. Ethan Joella teaches English and psychology at the University of Delaware. ![]()
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