Aftershock

May, 1960.

Chile has been struck by a combined tsunami and continuing earthquakes which reached a record-breaking 9.5 on the Richter scale.

Brother Hereward, a former World War Two British captain, dreams that he is being attacked in his convent cell by a wrathful god who overturns his bed and throws him to the floor.

At that point he hears frantic shouts of ‘Earthquake!’ as other Brothers rush from their cells to find the cook pinned down by beams from the collapsed kitchen ceiling.

Animals are maddened, kicking each other to death …

The building is the convent of a non-denominational order of former soldiers of two world wars who have renounced the world and sought to make restitution for their war-time violence.

Soon an official request is made to the Brothers to help in the rescue operations.

Hereward, the youngest Brother, is allowed to go into town on a wait-and-see basis but is surprised to be ushered urgently into the General’s office in the Town Hall and asked to lend his military expertise to the unprepared soldiers.

A meeting of the council and other local bodies is about to begin and as they enter the chamber Hereward almost collides with the General’s daughter, Aurora and there is a flash of mutual interest as eyes meet …

Meanwhile, a survivor finds his way through the floods which have cut off Villadorada. He has come from a small coastal port where the tsunami struck in all its major fury ‒ rebounding 7,000 miles to cause death and disasters in Japan and Hawaii. Hereward is asked to go down the flooding, surging river in the only remaining boat to assess the situation.

Weird atmospheric conditions caused by now permanent cloud cover leave the stricken area cut off from the outside world until a radio ham in Los Angeles finally picks up their intermittent SOS signal.

But while the physical world is being split asunder, Hereward and Aurora are drawn ever closer.

What, in a world gone mad, has fate in store for them?

Will he renounce the spiritual vows he made to the Brotherhood in exchange for physical passion?

And how can a devastated community cope or recover from an impact equivalent to 2.7 gigatons of TNT?

Aftershock – by turns lyrical and strident, awesome and sickening ‒ takes the reader into the heart of nature’s own war zone.

Ken Tout served in tanks with the 1st Northants Yeomanry, arriving seven days after D-Day in June 1944 and taking part in some of the fiercest fighting in Normandy. After the war, he devoted his life to peace. He was ordained, and worked in Latin America on earthquake and flood relief. Ken has written ten books, some of which are about his wartime experiences and vividly convey the emotional trauma of lie-or-death situations.

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