This is the way the world ends. Again. Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered her son and kidnapped her daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heartland of the world's sole continent, a great red rift has been torn into the earth's surface. From this crack spews enough ash to darken the sky for years. Or centuries. But this is just the beginning. 'The Fifth Season' is a powerful, epic novel of discovery, pain, and betrayal. It poses the question: how do we build a better world when the end times are upon us?