A friend is looking for a book she read and can't recall the title. Here is her description of the plot:
I could use your help! I'm trying to find the title of a book I read about 7 or 8 years ago. I've tried googling keywords from the plot (typed below) to no avail. It's a little-known post-apocalyptic novel (novella? It couldn't've been more than 150 pages - maybe even as few as 100).
It follows a man who was 'in the mountains on vacation' when the world collapsed (I can't remember what the catalyst was, now) and he comes down and finds that there's nothing for him in the cities. He runs into a child in a hogan and they travel together for awhile but they are eventually separated (I think that the boy dies?). The man continues his journey, he's heading south (maybe he was heading south the whole time?) and suddenly he's walked all the way down to a beach in southern Mexico (or maybe Central America) where the water is warm and the beach is shallow and (if I'm remembering right) the sand is super-soft and white. Time begins to pass very quickly and suddenly it's hundreds of years later and still he's 'the last man on earth' and he befriends these dolphins who have developed a symbiotic relationship with octopuses? maybe squid? I can't remember, but the symbiotic relationship consists of the dolphins carrying their symbionts over great distances in exchange for the superior brain power and love they get from their symbionts - who attach themselves to the dolphins' blowholes using their beaks. They locate 'the last woman on earth' in India and I'm pretty sure the book ends with them carrying the man to her over the ocean.
IT was purchased from a book store that closed in 2005, so it was published prior to that date. The cover was turquoise/blue bordered and I think had a black and white sketch? Have you heard of it?
I could use your help! I'm trying to find the title of a book I read about 7 or 8 years ago. I've tried googling keywords from the plot (typed below) to no avail. It's a little-known post-apocalyptic novel (novella? It couldn't've been more than 150 pages - maybe even as few as 100).
It follows a man who was 'in the mountains on vacation' when the world collapsed (I can't remember what the catalyst was, now) and he comes down and finds that there's nothing for him in the cities. He runs into a child in a hogan and they travel together for awhile but they are eventually separated (I think that the boy dies?). The man continues his journey, he's heading south (maybe he was heading south the whole time?) and suddenly he's walked all the way down to a beach in southern Mexico (or maybe Central America) where the water is warm and the beach is shallow and (if I'm remembering right) the sand is super-soft and white. Time begins to pass very quickly and suddenly it's hundreds of years later and still he's 'the last man on earth' and he befriends these dolphins who have developed a symbiotic relationship with octopuses? maybe squid? I can't remember, but the symbiotic relationship consists of the dolphins carrying their symbionts over great distances in exchange for the superior brain power and love they get from their symbionts - who attach themselves to the dolphins' blowholes using their beaks. They locate 'the last woman on earth' in India and I'm pretty sure the book ends with them carrying the man to her over the ocean.
IT was purchased from a book store that closed in 2005, so it was published prior to that date. The cover was turquoise/blue bordered and I think had a black and white sketch? Have you heard of it?
