Today is an awesome day; I just bought a copy of "Brother In The Land" by Robert Swindell. It may sound strange but this teenage post-apocalyptic thriller is still my favourite book of all time. Allow me to explain.
As a book it's not hugely well written (and the story is certainly very over the top) but it was an incredibly bleak book for a teenager to read. I first picked it up about 8 years ago and to this day it still has a powerful effect on me.
The plot is fairly simple: nuclear bombs go off, there are some bad guys, lots of death and a love story. But it's much more than the sum of it's parts; the story is horrifyingly bleak - possibly one of the bleakest novel's I have ever read. The characters are incredibly believable and the love affair, as it grows, is exquisite.
Indeed it has influenced a lot of my life. I know, for example, my attitude to love/relationships and religion has stemmed from ideas picked up within it's pages.
More importantly the book inspired my "never give in" attitude to life.
Perhaps it was just the ag eat which I read it; at the time I was going through a tough patch and changing a lot. Regardless I still think it is a powerful novel  - and reading it again it has lost none of it's message.
To cap it all it has one of the most brilliantly poignant endings I ever read; the last 3 sentences (which are permanently etched in my mind) still make me teary today.