The Passage by Justin Cronin is the first novel in a planned trilogy set in a monster-ravaged, post-apocalyptic America, in which the future of humanity hinges on the actions of a six-year-old girl. Stephen King praises, "[The Passage] has the vividness that only epic works of fantasy and imagination can achieve." A graduate of Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Cronin has won several awards for his fiction, including the Whiting Writers’ Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the Stephen Crane Prize. His previous novels include Mary and O’Neil and The Summer Guest.