The Passage
A death-row experiment meant to unlock immortality instead unleashes a catastrophe. Deep in a secret government project, a virus drawn from the jungles of Bolivia transforms its twelve test subjects into something monstrous — fast, feral, and all but unkillable. When they escape, civilization begins to fall apart in a matter of weeks.
At the center is Amy, a six-year-old girl abandoned by her mother and taken by the same program, who becomes both its final subject and, perhaps, humanity's only hope. FBI agent Brad Wolgast, tasked with delivering her to the lab, instead tries to protect her as the world collapses around them.
The story then leaps forward roughly a century to a walled colony of survivors clinging to existence under floodlights that hold the darkness at bay. When those defenses begin to fail, a small band sets out across a ruined continent, and their path draws them toward Amy and the origin of the plague. Justin Cronin's sweeping first volume of the Passage trilogy blends post-apocalyptic survival, horror, and epic scope into a single generational saga about endurance, sacrifice, and what it costs to keep hope alive.
A young girl who becomes the last subject of the experiment and central to humanity's survival.
A young member of the walled colony in the later timeline.
An FBI agent who tries to protect Amy as the world unravels.
A fierce soldier of the colony's watch.
The author developed the core premise while running alongside his daughter as she rode her bicycle, creating a story about a girl who saves the world at her specific request.
A television series based on the trilogy was produced by Fox and aired in 2019, though it was canceled after its first season and features significant narrative departures from the source material.
This is the first installment of a completed trilogy, followed by The Twelve and The City of Mirrors, which together span a narrative timeline of approximately one thousand years.