The .03 percent

BOOK

In Peter Heller’s new novel The Dog Stars (Knopf, $24.95), Hig and his dog Jasper have survived nearly a decade after the superflu apocalypse, sharing their tiny Colorado airport with a well-armed prepper and Hig’s 1956 Cessna. He’s learned to not think too much—about the past, his dead wife or the people they’ve killed to stay safe, only some of whom were actually a threat—but one more loss sends him flying out in search of an airport radio that he might have heard, once, four years ago. When 99.7 percent of the people are dead, how can one decent man start living again? Heller answers that question with Hig, a man who’s going to fly until he finds something worth loving.