Benjamin Percy's new post-apocalyptic novel arrives as a newspaper

NINA MOINI: Northfield-based horror writer Benjamin Percy has a new novel out, and it's unlike anything he's done before. To start, Percy's new book, called The End Times, does not come in the form of a book. Instead, it's being released as 12 newspaper deliveries over the course of a year.

The End Times follows the residents of a fictional Minnesota town called North End as they try to rebuild 12 years after a horrific pandemic nearly wiped out all of humanity. In true Percy fashion, weird and strange things start happening as they work to restart their lives, and Benjamin Percy's on the line now to talk more about his new project. Thanks so much for being here.

BENJAMIN PERCY: Hey, thank you for having me on.

NINA MOINI: What a great voice you have, wow.

[LAUGHTER]

BENJAMIN PERCY: Yeah. You didn't know the voice of the Witness Protection Program was an actual guy.

[LAUGHTER]

NINA MOINI: I really love this idea. You've dabbled in so much. You've done so many things over your career. What made you think of this idea of the newspaper theme?

BENJAMIN PERCY: A few different things came together in my head. One was during the pandemic. I was, like everybody else, overwhelmed by the news. You open up the New York Times, you look at social media, and it's like shoving broken glass in your eyes. And it was at that moment that I became really enamored with my local paper, the Northfield News, and I would read it cover to cover every week when it arrived.

And here's a story about a quarterback being carried off the field at homecoming, and here's a story about an organist at a church retiring after 50 years, or a lemonade stand, or a restaurant opening. Here's an obituary of a beloved neighbor, et cetera. And what I recognized is that I couldn't make a difference on an international scale, but a small town newspaper helps you recognize that you can make an impact in your own backyard.

And so I started thinking about that form as a way to communicate story. And I've always been interested in epistolary novels, Frankenstein, Dracula. Those are probably when I first became aware of the form. And I wanted to modernize it, and so I sort of exaggerated my state of mind during the pandemic. And I thought, what if things turned out for the worst, and we ended up in a world sort of equivalent to The Stand where 99% of the population is gone, and we have to rebuild?

NINA MOINI: Wow. Yeah. And still, the headlines today. I wonder, too, what you're talking about, just community and local news and knowing what's going on with your neighbors. I think people are craving that, in a way, and people are losing that, in a way. And so it's so neat that you were able to draw on that and turn it into this creative project.

BENJAMIN PERCY: I know. So much of the news right now is divisive, and a small town newspaper is all about unification.

NINA MOINI: And so I wonder. I don't want to give too much away about the plot, or I don't want you to have to do that, but in keeping with the newspaper theme, is there a headline for this project, or what should people know before they dive in?

BENJAMIN PERCY: So this is year 12 after the pandemic. It's not a time when the world is falling apart, it's a time when the world is building itself back up. And so many people have found a new beginning. Some people are farming. You might be a blacksmith, a weaver, whatever.

But there's a woman named Mary Poole here in the town of North End, which is a cracked mirror version of Northfield, Minnesota, where I live. And Mary Poole one day is scavenging, and she comes across a printing press in the basement of the North End News. And she decides that this will be her thing. She's been sort of floundering, and she decides this will be her thing, her way of contributing to her community.

So the newspaper is, at first, her voice and her voice alone. But over the course of the story, she invites others in, and it becomes a whole chorus of voices. And I've been referring to it as a cross between Station Eleven, if you're familiar with that novel by Emily St. John Mandel, and Our Time, the play.

NINA MOINI: You know what else is so cool about this? It seems like, obviously, a really intentional project on your part, that the novel is being printed by an actual press in Ortonville, here in Minnesota, by the Ortonville Independent. How did you get linked up with those folks, and why did you want to spotlight them?

BENJAMIN PERCY: So you can order the book by going to Bad Hand Books. That's the publisher. Bad Hand Books is publishing The End Times. But the publisher, Doug Murano of Bad Hand Books, his mother-in-law runs the Waubay Clipper. The Waubay Clipper is a small town newspaper that is published through the Ortonville Independent. So Doug has been in communication with his mother-in-law.

It's one of the reasons that I really wanted to work with this press is that he knew how to do this. And so his mother-in-law has been laying out every issue for us and communicating with Ortonville who then sends this far and wide. So it's very much a Minnesota story. I'm not just talking about the content. It's a Midwest story, too, and very, very grassroots in that this tiny little printing presses is sending off things from coast to coast.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And I understand you're also donating $1 to the ACLU with each issue. What made you want to do that?

BENJAMIN PERCY: If you think about-- there's some scary stuff that happens in The End Times, but really, the operative word is hope. And I really wanted to channel cultural unease and political unease. And in the end, this is a story about rekindling the spirit of America.

It's about unifying people through collective action and storytelling. It's about fighting fear and dangerous dogmas and false histories with the power and the responsibility of journalism. Journalists are the heroes of this story. And so in that spirit, yes. You can subscribe physically or you can subscribe digitally. Every digital copy, we are donating $1 to the ACLU.

NINA MOINI: Do you think it's hard for people sometimes to appreciate the way that even a horror story or a so-called scary story can have all of these uplifting themes? It's kind of cool.

BENJAMIN PERCY: Yeah. When people ask me about horror, I talk about it as a rehearsal for fear, a rehearsal for bad times. And I think that there's no coincidence that during these past few years, when things have been so tumultuous on a global scale, that people are turning more and more to horror. Horror is having sort of a golden moment in bookstores and at the box office.

And that's because people want a safe way to sort of experience these anxieties that are seemingly uncontrollable. And in the same way that you go through a haunted house or you ride a roller coaster, they can emerge out the other end of a horror novel or a horror movie safe and almost build up a callus for the wounds that they have inside them.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Gosh, that's such a deep way of looking at it. And I wonder, too. You're talking about, it's grassroots, and that's such a beautiful story in itself of how this came together. But there's also someone who is a really big deal who's involved in the project. Little known writer Stephen King. For anyone who hasn't heard of him, how did you all end up collaborating here, and what was that for you?

BENJAMIN PERCY: Stephen King is an incredibly generous, down to Earth guy. A few years back, he posted on social media about one of my novels. We got in touch after that. He's blurbed several of my books. I interviewed him on stage in Minneapolis at the Wordplay literary festival. And I would not say that we are best buddies, but we are friendly.

And, I'm somebody who grew up really worshiping at the altar of King. And I reached out to him for a few different reasons about this. I didn't want to. I hesitated to, because 5,000 people are bugging Stephen King a day, and I didn't want to annoy him. But I read The Green Mile in installments. People probably don't realize this today, but that book came out as a serialized story, and I would rush to the bookstore every few weeks to pick up the next installment. So there's that.

There's also the fact that this takes place essentially in the world of The Stand. And King has taken some big swings, some experimental swings over the years with one of the first ebooks out there, Riding the Bullet and The Plant, which he released through his website. So I reached out and figured the worst he could say is no, but he very generously said yes.

NINA MOINI: Wow. Amazing. I'm so happy for you, Benjamin. Thank you so much for stopping by Minnesota Now and telling us about your remarkable work. Really appreciate it.

BENJAMIN PERCY: Hey, thanks for having me on.

NINA MOINI: That's Northfield-based horror writer Benjamin Percy.