In this New York Times best-seller, when a meteor knocks the moon closer to earth, Miranda, a high school sophomore, takes shelter with her family in this heart-stopping post-apocalyptic thriller that's "absorbing from first to last page."* (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald's still would be open. Like one marble hitting another, when the moon slams closer to earth, the result is catastrophic. Worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun.

As August turns dark and wintery in northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.

Told in a year's worth of journal entries, Life as We Knew It chronicles the human struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all'hope'in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.