Last Day, Ruta Domenica

In Domenica Rutas profoundly original novel, the end of the world comes once a year. Every May 28th, humanity gathers to anticipate the planets demise--and to celebrate as if the day is truly its last.

On this holiday, three intersecting sets of characters embark on a possibly last-chance quest for redemption. In Boston, bookish wunderkind Sarah is looking for love and maybe a cosmic reversal from the much older Kurt, a tattoo artist she met at last years Last Day BBQ--but hes still trying to make amends to the family he destroyed long ago. Dysfunctional Karen keeps getting into trouble, especially when the voices shes been hearing coax her to abandon everything to search for her long-lost adoptive brother; her friend Rosette has left the Jehovahs Witnesses to follow a new pastor at the Last Kingdom on Earth, where she brings Karen on this fateful day. Meanwhile, above them all, three astronauts on the International Space Station, Bear, an American; Russian Svec; and billionaire Japanese space tourist Yui, contemplate their lives as well as their precious Earth from afar.