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Alfred Coppel’s short story follows Tom Henderson through the final hours before a catastrophic change in the sun is expected to make Earth’s surface uninhabitable. With the city breaking down around him, he must confront the personal relationships he has already abandoned.
A small number of underground shelters offer survival, but entrance depends on possessing the right tokens. Henderson’s estranged wife, their two daughters and another woman become entangled in his desperate effort to obtain a chance of escape. The approaching disaster strips away familiar assumptions about money, security and the time left to make amends.
The story concentrates on the choices of one family rather than the mechanics of a planetary rescue. Its movement between public catastrophe and private responsibility gives the last night its emotional force. First published in Orbit in 1954, the complete original story is accompanied here by the source illustrations and the Project Gutenberg production and license material.