Hot War, Cold War

The Last Shade Tree is permeated with wartime fears, either from flashbacks, or from the characters’ anxiety living in old Czechoslovakia during the latter half of the 20th century. In fact, their prediction of a final nuclear war in 2050 propels the story to its extraordinary conclusion.

Aleta’s fictional experiences within the context of historical events plunge the reader into visceral scenes of wartime history. In one chapter, Aleta finds herself befriended by a Japanese couple just before their deportation to a United States’ camp. In another, she barely survives her imprisonment at Drancy, a French camp for Jews on their way to Auschwitz.

Today, as we move inexorably toward 2050, many threats loom that endanger our earth. Curiously, the threat of nuclear war has been blunted in the popular imagination by the decline of the Cold War and the emergence of many new threats such as climate change and extinctions of whole species. Nonetheless, the world’s strongest nations remain armed to the teeth with little progress made in cutting stockpiles and with many smaller nations striving to catch up.

Although they spring from the author’s imagination, the Moon People, a loony couple who circle the earth in an orbiting fallout shelter, are based on fact or at least, on a concept. The myth still persists that surviving a nuclear war is a breeze if you have a fallout shelter: a glance at the Internet shows companies anxious to build costly custom-made underground havens just for you. In addition to public shelters in cities, the notion of private shelters to protect against radiation had its heyday in the 1960s. Back then, commercial firms offered a variety of choices that ranged from the “$13.50 foxhole” to the “$5,000 deluxe model.”