Blackout (Elsberg novel)
2012 novel by Marc Elsberg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blackout: Tomorrow Will Be Too Late is a disaster thriller book by the Austrian author Marc Elsberg, described by Penguin Books as "a 21st-century high-concept disaster thriller".[2]
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Cover of the German edition (2012). | |
| Author | Marc Elsberg |
|---|---|
| Original title | Blackout – Morgen ist es zu spät |
| Language | German |
| Subject | Power outage |
| Genre | thriller |
| Publisher | Black Swan |
| Publication date | 2012 |
Published in English | 2017 |
| Pages | 350 |
| Awards | Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2012[1] |
| ISBN | 978-1784161897 (first edition in English) |
| Followed by | Zero – Sie wissen, was du tust |
Published in German in 2012, as of 2016[update] it had been translated into fifteen languages and sold a million copies worldwide.[2] The English version was published in 2017.[2]
The novel is about a European power outage due to a cyberattack. For realism the book is written on the basis of interviews with intelligence and computer security officials.[3]
Plot
The novel starts with a collapse of electrical grids across Europe, plunging the population into darkness and disaster.[2][3] The prolonged electricity cut causes major problems: no more petrol, no telephone, no food in supermarkets, no cash machines working, nuclear disasters, etc.[3][4] A former computer hacker and IT professional tries to find out the root cause for this. While doing so he himself becomes a hunted person as officials find suspicious e-mails sent from his laptop and think that he is involved.
Film adaptation
The novel is currently being adapted into a miniseries starring Moritz Bleibtreu, directed by Oliver Rihs and Lancelot von Naso and is scheduled to begin filming in fall 2020.[5]
