A lost dystopian classic re-emerges from 1967—chilling, prescient, and darkly beautiful. Introduced by Jeff VanderMeer, author of Annihilation, who calls it “a classic: stunning, dangerous, darkly beautiful.”
Welcome to Termush—a luxury coastal resort unlike any other. Built as an exclusive haven in anticipation of nuclear disaster, its wealthy guests had the foresight to reserve their place long before the world collapsed. Now, in the wake of the apocalypse, they live surrounded by ambient music, gourmet rations, and radiation-proof shelters—cut off from a dying world where radioactive dust coats sculpture parks and corpses gather on the hotel steps.
But survival comes at a cost.
As more survivors appear outside the gates, tensions rise within. Management censors information. Disruptive guests are sedated. Generosity turns to fear, and a deep ethical crisis begins to unfold. With limited resources and rising paranoia, the guests must decide: who belongs inside, and who is left to perish?
First published in Denmark in 1967, Termush eerily anticipates today’s survivalist culture and climate anxieties. Both a haunting vision of the future and a philosophical inquiry into power, privilege, and collective ethics, it asks a pressing question: what kind of world do we rebuild, and who gets to build it?
For fans of dystopian fiction, speculative classics, and readers of J.G. Ballard, Margaret Atwood, and Emily St. John Mandel, Termush is a rediscovered gem of apocalyptic literature.
Author
Sven Holm (1940-2019) was a celebrated Danish author and playwright. He made his debut as a 21-year old with an acclaimed story collection in 1961. In 1974, he was awarded the Grand Prize of the Danish Academy, where he was made a member in 2001, the same year he won the Danish Critics Prize for Literature, followed by the Holberg.
Physical Info: 7.8 x 0.47 x 5.12 inches. | 144 Pages | Paperback
Faber&Faber