After the Before

Three hundred years after the fall, the ruins still remember.

Sophie and Markus are scavengers, picking through a cratered plain bombed almost into oblivion and stalked by unstoppable, flesh-hungry machines. When they unearth a sealed box buried deep in the ruins of The Before, they know two things: it might hold the key to a safer future for humanity — and it will take everything they have to reach someone who can open it.

From an award-winning songwriter, professional musician, and exhibited visual artist — now, at 81, a debut novelist already being compared to Station Eleven and The Road.

Their journey to the City, in search of a reclusive historian who may hold the answer, is derailed when a religious fanatic takes Sophie and the box. Markus must push into the heart of his worst fears, calling on unexpected allies, testing loyalties, and reopening wounds he thought had healed — because what's in the box may buy humanity a future. It might also cost him the person he can't imagine living without.

After the Before is not a survival story about outrunning the end of the world. It's about what's worth carrying forward once the running stops — memory, trust, and the fragile, stubborn hope that comes from choosing each other anyway.

If you enjoyed After the Before, don't miss What Awaits?, Ernie Gammage's award-shortlisted short story collection..