History Literature / TheQuietPlace

Using a raft to reach the French mainland, they discover the worst: civilization has collapsed and man has turned to savagery. Small hunter-gatherer tribes are scattered throughout the country, with [[GenderRarityValue women outnumbering the men]]. Their language is a primitive form of French and their main means of hunting and defending themselves boil down to spears and wooden shields. Once-domesticated animals roam the wilderness and abandoned city streets. From studying the ruins of civilization, the astronauts concludes that it must have been centuries since they left Earth.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: While retaking their livestock from the western men at Windsor Castle, Barry is killed and Lian and Wani - the wives of Jeff and Paul, respectively - are taken prisoner. Jeff and Paul attempt a rescue that ends with Jeff getting caught in a trap and Paul abandoning Lian to save Wani instead. Lian is caught again, raped and killed. Back with the tribe, a jaded Jeff becomes a hermit and shuns Paul. The tribe abandons Jeff, all except his children. Years pass and a cholera epidemic ends up killing Pip. Paul is eventually killed by the now grown up men of the tribe, who usurp leadership from the older generations. Jeff, the only survivor among the astronauts, is feared by the usurpers and suspects they'll kill him next. He decides to write a memoir (the text of the novel itself) to leave behind to future historians and archeologists. He then emerges from his solitude and walks away from the tribe with his children, their fate left unknown.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: While retaking their livestock from the western men at Windsor Castle, Barry is killed and Lian and Wani - the wives of Jeff and Paul, respectively - are taken prisoner. Jeff and Paul attempt a rescue at the castle and are successful enough at first, until Jeff is caught in one of Pip's animal traps and watches in horror as Paul, in the heat of the moment, carries his own wife to safety across a bridge, abandoning Lian. She's caught, gang-raped and then executed in cold blood by the western men. Her corpse is then eaten by wild dogs. Back in the safety of their own tribe, a grief-stricken Jeff is left feeling jaded and becomes apathetic, feeling nothing but hatred for Paul. The tribe abandons Jeff, all except his children. Years pass and a cholera epidemic ends up killing Pip. Paul is eventually killed by the now grown up men of the tribe, who usurp leadership from the older generations. Jeff, the only survivor among the astronauts, is feared by the usurpers and suspects they'll kill him next. He decides to write a memoir (the text of the novel itself) to leave behind to future historians and archeologists. He then emerges from his solitude and walks away from the tribe with his children, their fate left unknown.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: After cheating on him, [[spoiler: Oona sacrifices herself by jumping into the mouth of a lioness to save a wounded Barry.]] Then later during the Windsor Castle raid, [[spoiler: Barry sacrifices himself holding back the hordes of western men to give his friends time to escape.]]

* EyeScream: When Jeff, Barry, Pip and Paul return to the raft where Lucky is waiting, they discover the raft missing and [[spoiler: his sliced up, decapitated head, complete with empty eye sockets.]]

* HumansAreBastards: The classic British pessimism is rife throughout the entire story. Despite the best efforts of the astronauts to bring the tribal societies out of their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, the people they're trying to help are too stubborn and violent to accept change. This is evidence by [[spoiler: the murder of Paul at the hands of the adolescent boys who once idolized Jeff's men, and who now plan to kill Jeff in order to eliminate any competition for leadership.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: While retaking their livestock from the western men at Windsor Castle, Barry is killed and Lian and Wani - the wives of Jeff and Paul, respectively - are taken prisoner. Jeff and Paul attempt a rescue at the castle and are successful enough at first, until Jeff is caught in one of Pip's animal traps and watches in horror as Paul, in the heat of the moment, carries his own wife to safety across a bridge, abandoning Lian. She's caught, gang-raped and then executed in cold blood by the western men. She dies slowly and her corpse is then eaten by wild dogs. Back in the safety of their own tribe, a grief-stricken Jeff is left feeling jaded and becomes apathetic, feeling nothing but hatred for Paul. The tribe abandons Jeff, all except his children. Years pass and a cholera epidemic ends up killing Pip. Paul is eventually killed by the now grown up men of the tribe, who usurp leadership from the older generations. Jeff, the only survivor among the astronauts, is feared by the usurpers and suspects they'll kill him next. He decides to write a memoir (the text of the novel itself) to leave behind to future historians and archeologists. He then emerges from his solitude and walks away from the tribe with his children, their fate left unknown.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: While retaking their livestock from the western men at Windsor Castle, Barry is killed and Lian and Wani - the wives of Jeff and Paul, respectively - are taken prisoner. Jeff and Paul attempt a rescue at the castle and are successful enough at first, until Jeff is caught in one of Pip's animal traps and watches in horror as Paul, in the heat of the moment, carries his own wife to safety across a bridge, abandoning Lian. She's caught, gang-raped and then executed in cold blood by the western men. She dies slowly and her corpse is then eaten by wild dogs. Back in the safety of their own tribe, a grief-stricken Jeff is left feeling jaded and becomes apathetic, feeling nothing but hatred for Paul. The tribe isolates him and the latter avoids him. Years pass and a cholera epidemic ends up killing Pip. Paul is eventually killed by the now grown up men of the tribe, who usurp leadership from the older generations. Jeff, the only survivor among the astronauts, is feared by the usurpers and suspects they'll kill him next. He decides to write a memoir (the text of the novel itself) to leave behind to future historians and archeologists. He then emerges from his solitude and walks away from the tribe with his children, their fate left unknown.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: While retaking their livestock from the western men at Windsor Castle, Barry is killed and Lian and Wani - the wives of Jeff and Paul, respectively - are taken prisoner. Jeff and Paul attempt a rescue at the castle and are successful enough at first, until Jeff is caught in one of Pip's animal traps and watches in horror as Paul, in the heat of the moment, carries his own wife to safety across a bridge, abandoning Lian. She's caught, gang-raped and then executed in cold blood by the western men. She dies slowly and her corpse is then eaten by wild dogs. Back in the safety of their own tribe, a grief-stricken Jeff is left feeling jaded and becomes apathetic, feeling nothing but hatred for Paul. The tribe isolates him. Years pass and a cholera epidemic ends up killing Pip. Paul is eventually killed by the now grown up men of the tribe, who usurp leadership from the older generations. Jeff, the only survivor among the astronauts, is feared by the usurpers and suspects they'll kill him next. He decides to write a memoir (the text of the novel itself) to leave behind to future historians and archeologists. He then emerges from his solitude and walks away from the tribe with his children, their fate left unknown.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: While retaking their livestock from the western men at Windsor Castle, Barry is killed and Lian and Wani - the wives of Jeff and Paul, respectively - are taken prisoner. Jeff and Paul attempt a rescue at the castle and are successful enough at first, until Jeff is caught in one of Pip's animal traps and watches in horror as Paul, in the heat of the moment, carries his own wife to safety across a bridge, abandoning Lian. She's caught, gang-raped and then executed in cold blood by the western men. She dies slowly and her corpse is then eaten by wild dogs. Back in the safety of their own tribe, a grief-stricken Jeff is left feeling jaded and retreats from the tribe, feeling nothing but hatred for Paul. Years pass and a cholera epidemic ends up killing Pip. Paul is eventually killed by the now grown up men of the tribe, who usurp leadership from the older generations. Jeff, the only survivor among the astronauts, is feared by the usurpers and suspects they'll kill him next. He decides to write a memoir (the text of the novel itself) to leave behind to future historians and archeologists. He then emerges from his solitude and walks away from the tribe with his children, their fate left unknown.]]

* HopeSpringsEternal: [[spoiler: Despite losing all of his comrades, the love of his life and the world he knew before the collapse, Jeff is optimistic that his tribe, now the largest in England, will conquer the other tribes and unify the country into a new nation. He also hopes that his buried memoirs about his experiences will be discovered by a future civilization and that his efforts will be remembered.]]

* TragicHero: The surviving astronauts lost friends and family to the time dialtion and continue to keep losing people throughout the novel. Their own personal demons and interpersonal conflicts only result in more tragedy by the end of the novel.

* TheReveal: While scavenging in a London pharmacy, Pip discovers a bottle of a drug called Biocinetin. Pip later reveals the reason for the world's demise to his fellow astronauts. [[spoiler: It turns out that Biocinetin was an anti-aging drug of the highest calibre that's Pip's research team peddled to the medical industry. It rejuvenated a person physically, but the mental and biological effects of aging would remain unaffected leading to 'death by old age' decades later. The drug's major side effect was infertility, leading to an underpopulation crisis when it spread to shelves all over the world. When most of the world's adults died in the ensuing chaos, it was mainly children that remained of the previous world. With nobody to guide them they regressed to a primitive way of life.]]

* TheReveal: While scavenging in a London pharmacy, Pip discovers a bottle of a drug called Biocinetin. Pip later reveals the reason for the world's demise to his fellow astronauts. [[spoiler: It turns out that Biocinetin was an anti-aging drug of the highest calibre that's Pip's research team peddled to the medical industry. It rejuvenated a person physically, but the mental and biological effects of aging would remain unaffected leading to 'death by old age' decades later. The drug's major side effect was infertility, leading to an underpopulation crisis when it spread to shelves all over the world. When most of the world's adults died the ensuing chaos, children were all that remained of the previous world. With no one to guide them they regressed to a primitive way of life.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: While retaking their livestock from the western men at Windsor Castle, Barry is killed and Lian and Wani - the wives of Jeff and Paul, respectively - are taken prisoner. Jeff and Paul attempt a rescue at the castle and are successful enough at first, until Jeff is caught in one of Kip's traps and watches in horror as Paul, in the heat of the moment, carries his own wife to safety across a bridge, abandoning Lian. She's caught, gang-raped and then executed in cold blood by the western men. She dies slowly and her corpse is then eaten by wild dogs. Back in the safety of their own tribe, a grief-stricken Jeff is left feeling jaded and retreats from the tribe, feeling nothing but hatred for Paul. Years pass and a cholera epidemic ends up killing Pip. Paul is eventually killed by the now grown up men of the tribe, who usurp leadership from the older generations. Jeff, the only survivor among the astronauts, is feared by the usurpers and suspects they'll kill him next. He decides to write a memoir (the text of the novel itself) to leave behind to future historians and archeologists. He then emerges from his solitude and walks away from the tribe with his children, their fate left unknown.]]

* IronicNickname: Luciano "Lucky" Cragnolini. [[spoiler: He's the first among the astronauts to die.]]

* AfterTheEnd: Civilization seems to have fallen centuries earlier due to an unspecified disaster. There are no signs of nuclear war or an environmental catastrophe. The scientists postulate that the rest of the world is in a similar state. It turns out [[spoiler: that Biocinetine, an anti-aging drug, led to women becoming infertile for several decades, which eventually led to societal collapse.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_quiet_place_4.jpg]]

* OddFriendship:

* HappilyMarried: The astronauts to the women they liberate from the warring tribes led by Oa and his rivals. They end up inspiring monogamy among the polyandrous tribal women.