Blackout (Elsberg novel)

2012 novel by Marc Elsberg

Blackout: Tomorrow Will Be Too Late

Cover of the German edition (2012).

Author| Marc Elsberg
Original title| Blackout – Morgen ist es zu spät
Language| German
Subject| Power outage
Genre| thriller
Publisher| Black Swan

Publication date

| 2012

Published in English

| 2017
Pages| 350
Awards| Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2012[1]
ISBN| 978-1784161897 (first edition in English)
Followed by| Zero – Sie wissen, was du tust

Blackout: Tomorrow Will Be Too Late is a disaster thriller book by the Austrian author Marc Elsberg, described by Penguin Books as "a 21st-century high-concept disaster thriller".[2]

Published in German in 2012, as of 2016[update] it had been translated into fifteen languages and sold a million copies worldwide.[2] The English version was published in 2017.[2]

The novel is about a European power outage due to a cyberattack. For realism the book is written on the basis of interviews with intelligence and computer security officials.[3]

## Plot

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The novel starts with a collapse of electrical grids across Europe, plunging the population into darkness and disaster.[2][3] The prolonged electricity cut causes major problems: no more petrol, no telephone, no food in supermarkets, no cash machines working, nuclear disasters, etc.[3][4] A former computer hacker and IT professional tries to find out the root cause for this. While doing so he himself becomes a hunted person as officials find suspicious e-mails sent from his laptop and think that he is involved.

## Film adaptation

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The novel is currently being adapted into a miniseries starring Moritz Bleibtreu, directed by Oliver Rihs and Lancelot von Naso and is scheduled to begin filming in fall 2020.[5]

## See also

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* Societal collapse
* Cyberwarfare
* Smart meter § Security

## References

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1. ^ In the category "Unterhaltung" (entertainment).
2. ^ a b c d Blackout (Marc Elsberg), Penguin Books (page visited on 3 September 2016).
3. ^ a b c (in French) Blaise Gauquelin, "Coût de la panne. Marc Elsberg plonge l’Europe dans le noir avec l’aide de hackers", Libération, 6 May 2015 (page visited on 4 September 2016).
4. ^ Nico Fried, "Innenminister in der Kritik - De Maizière stellt Zivilschutzkonzept vor", Süddeutsche Zeitung, 24 August 2016 (accessed 4 September 2016). In this article, the German Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maizière, cites Marc Elsberg's book Blackout to illustrate the vulnerability of the power supply infrastructure.
5. ^ "Moritz Bleibtreu übernimmt die Hauptrolle in "Blackout"" (in German). goldenekamera.de. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.

## External links

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* Official website
* Blackout (Marc Elsberg at TEDxBerlin)

Portals:

* Literature
* Books
* Science fiction