So anyway, the world ends, and Edgar is forced to step up and take care of his family. So does he? Will he protect his wife, their little girl and infant son? Well, not quite. He tries, he really tries. When he's not avoiding them. Maybe not them, but the responsibility they bring along with them. All he wants to do is play boy scout while the army takes care of everything. Asteroids are striking Earth, the end of the world is near, and Edgar Hill is on the wrong side of the country. The End of the World Running Club is where the beautifully imagined post-apocalyptic world of The Salt Line meets the deep humanity of A Man Called Ove. Don’t get me wrong—I loved my wife and I loved my kids, but that doesn’t mean to say I had to be happy about it. For me, then at least, being a husband and father meant being simultaneously exhausted and terrified. I was like a man on a cliff edge, nodding off. Love my wife. Love my kids. You have to take care with your tenses when the world ends. The apocalypse has arrived and a man is forced to run (pretty much) from Scotland to Cornwall to find the family which has been evacuated ahead of him.

This wasn’t unusual; our Sky satellite box sometimes crashed and just needed a reboot. Still, a little red warning light flashed in my mind and gave me an uncomfortable feeling in my gut. I was only halfway to the age when it’s OK to feel lethargic, cold, bitter, and confused, and yet I felt those things every minute of every day. I was overweight. I ate double portions, drank double measures, avoided exercise. I was inflating like a balloon on an abandoned gas cylinder. My world perplexed me—every day was a haze of confusion. But then shit goes down. It's one thing after the other - and as most fans of post-apoc fiction will admit, we kind of like that sort of thing. Having the SHTF is a good thing in these kinds of stories.

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The truth is I was tired of it all. I was tired of the clamor and the din of a world that made less sense by the day and a life that had me just where it wanted. The truth is that the end of the world, for me at least, came as a relief. Along the way they encounter some very difficult circumstances. Being at the army base they have been pretty shielded from the worst of it. Once they leave they see what has really become of the country, and its citizens. They have all had to do things to survive. Bad things. Violent things. Selfish things. None of them have lasted this long without acquiring some taint on their souls. I like reading apocalyptic action stories. I enjoyed this one more than most because it had a different purpose. The story isn't just about surviving a catastrophe....it's about coming out on the other side a better person. This is the first book by Adrian J. Walker that I've read. I'm definitely going to read his other books. I like his writing style and the way endurance running figured into the plot. For a short period in the book (say 30% in?) I started to lose interest, thinking it was going to be a run of the mill post-apocalyptic book. Edgar meets many people in his run across the country, from Harvey to Lord Bartonmouth. What did they all contribute to Edgar’s transformation, and who do you think was the most important?

Nope, that's not it at all. Ed is just being Ed; complaining and whining about exercise because he hates to do it. I heard my name called. Once, twice, then a third time louder. I jerked awake. I was sitting down; my arms were folded, stiff with inaction. The air was full of noise and movement. Screams, colors flashing by, something tugging at my trouser leg. I tried to focus. A red, urgent face was looking down on me, shouting. Ed was asleep when it started, still feeling the effects of a drink it two too many, and by the time he worked out what was going on it was already almost too late. Grabbing the only shelter he could think of he secreted his family (he, wife and their two children) away into their cellar while asteroids worked their horrors. Ed's character arc from inviting the end of the world to running across a continent for his family was lovely. He's a morally gray character - as is everyone in a dystopian - and I liked who he became. Harvey, Bryce and Grimes were good characters too but we didn't get too much of a good look at them. The book took an appropriately deep dive into humanity in general as well as what keeps us going in the dark. Running not so much although there were a few long distance insights and I am in awe that the untrained people ran so far.Desperation and survival leads decent people into dark actions, but are there any survivors Edgar meets that you cannot forgive? What is the difference between a girl like Gloria and a woman like Jenny Rae? An Aussie who claimed to have once run the breadth of Australia. Needless to say, the big guy didn't believe a word of it. I don’t really do running clubs. I run as I dream—alone. But if I did join a club, it would certainly be to run through a post-apocalyptic wasteland with some new found mates, trying to reach my family before they shipped off forever. This is part of the scenario in the book, “The End of the World Running Club," a novel by Adrian Walker. The novel is a wonderful, harrowing, epic, witty, and emotional story of the apocalypse and one man’s attempt to be the father he wanted to be after the world ends. That's about the story of The end of the World Running Club. Not a pretty story, but truly intriguing. Kept me reading on and on from start to end. Great read. Makes you think what you would do in these circumstances. Some tears even at the end....

Alice’s bunnies went everywhere with her. In bed, in the car, on the sofa, at the table, at nursery. Everywhere. When she had a fall or when she was tired or when she was scared, they were her only source of comfort. I leaped up the steps and through the kitchen, up the stairs and into Alice’s room. My heart thumped in my throat. Everything was eerily quiet after the noise. The dog had stopped. Alice had stopped. I really liked the beginning because Ed, the narrator, started at the end of the story with the description of three graves that he was thinking of digging up to prove his sanity. Or had he already lost it? He talked about beliefs and it set the book up for the potential to be a mirage. The whole beginning was absolutely wonderful as the asteroids occurred and then the family was trapped in the cellar. I felt like it went slowly downhill once Ed & Co started the journey.The end is a perfect combination of victory and sadness. A way to resolve a story such as this without coming out too optimistic is difficult and I do appreciate that Adrian J. Walker resisted the urge to tie it all in a bow.

I almost cried at the end of this book. Well, I did cry, but nobody saw. If a tear falls in the forest….Du weißt nicht, was das heißt, jemanden zu beschützen [...] was es heißt, nicht beschützt zu werden. Du hast keine Ahnung, wie wichtig das ist. Einfach für jemanden da zu sein. [...] weil du nur für dich selbst da bist. [...] Weil du nie Vater werden wirst. Vielleicht hast du recht, und dich braucht niemand zu beschützen. Vielleicht bist du es einfach nicht wert." (S. 150) I thought this was just going to be an average book but it was really quite good. Ed is whiney and mostly useless, and if this were a real apocalypse he would probably be one of the first to die (probably because someone killed his whiney ass) but he and his unlikely friends do alright. Well, not really...a few die, Ed is maimed, and his wife leaves on the boat without him but Ed learned some valuable life lessons...which may have been more useful to him before the world ended but better late than never. Anyway, yes, I hold up my hand, guilty again. I insisted on my right to sleep. Beth conceded, but only on the proviso that I took the early shift on Saturdays and Sundays. I couldn’t really argue with her. There’s only so far you can push it with a woman who’s just given birth. The first four chapters would make an amazing short story about an asteroid(s) impact on Earth. I rate those four chapters 5 out of 5. And then the rest of the book comes... and ruins the magic.