Day's End
In Dublin, a cancer treatment center is robbed of its supply of Cesium 137.
In Houston, a zealous evangelical minister preaches about the fast-approaching end ties.
And in a Jerusalem market, sixteen people are murdered in as midday marketplace bombing.
Day's End is the story of three families--Christian, Jewish, and Muslim--whose lives are thrown together as a result of a terrible tragedy. But even as the families struggle to understand the implications of that tragedy, an elaborate international scheme is taking form, one designed to render unusable for centuries to come one of the world's holiest and most contentious sites.
The stories that comprise Day's End are at once personal and tightly intertwined: the sister of a young girl killed in the marketplace bombing, the brother of the bomber, an evangelical Protestant minister, and an Israeli fighter pilot severely injured in a training accident and forced down a career path he deeply resents--one that puts him on a collision course with the perpetrators of the attack.
Swain's latest novel explores the important themes of religious intolerance and violence but includes, as well, many hopeful outcomes, including not only the dialog and understanding that develop between characters withg seemingly irreconcilable theological beliefs, but ultimately the creation of an international charity organization begun by the three families and dedicated to the healing of the family members on both sides of religious violence.
Day’s End - Excerpt
“Though the day is cool and windy, Khalid is sweating profusely by the time he rounds the south corner of the market's main avenue. The entire marketplace is more than ten blocks long, and the choice of precise location is entirely his. Do not attract attention, they had said. Ride at the same speed as everyone else. Best if you do not stop before pushing the button. Just keep riding. "Mrs. Levin," Ariella calls into the rear of the shop. "I think I'll take you up on that delivery. There's a man coming just n-" The first sprinkles of late morning rain have begun to fall on the marketplace. At that moment, the center of the avenue, the vegetable stand, nine other shops, the old woman, the young girl, and more than a dozen others much like them all disappear in one apocalyptic flash of brilliant white light. And with them, a young man who has closed his eyes at the last moment, just as his trembling thumb pushes firmly down on the button.