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A short 1950s SciFi novel about a virus that kills grasses. Starvation and violence breaks out. Governments fall. Civilization crumbles.
The Death of Grass was written in 1956, but it honestly felt pretty current, except for the very dated portrayal of women. A virus that originated in China (why always China?) wipes out all forms of grass throughout Asia. It soon spreads to Europe and the rest of the world.Β Grasses feed livestock, produce bread, beer, etc. Everyone goes hungry and things turn violent.Β Scientists put all their faith in a plant vaccine, but the virus mutates and spreads even further.Β The Prime Minister decides to bomb all the cities in the UK (!) to prevent mass deaths and violence.
The story follows a family that breaks out of London to get to a brotherβs farm in Northern England. Theyβre forced to use violence to get through a military roadblock, which is the start of about a weekβs worth of intensifying violence and savagery, ultimately ending with the protagonist killing his own brother to take over the farm.
When it sank below a certain level, was life itself worth the having any longer? They had lived in a world of morality whose lineage could be traced back nearly four thousand years. In a day, it had been swept from under them.
Could such a thing happen here? Now? These stories sure make you think so.