This is a post-apocalyptic book from 1987 by Robert McCammon. It’s a very long book at nearly 1000 pages, and I think it’s heavily influenced by The Stand by Stephen King which was released a few years before. The apocalypse in this particular story is nuclear war between the US and Russia. Over the first few chapters missiles start flying overhead and destroying the world around the characters we have met.
The story is told from multiple viewpoints, but the main plot is around a girl named Swan who has the power to make living things grow with her touch. The story is clearly Christian. There is a character who is obviously Satan, and Swan is a stand-in for Jesus. The town that the characters settle in near the end of the book is Mary’s rest, and several characters develop hard helmet-like growths on their heads they call Job’s mask.
Some of the sections of the book, particularly the plot of the antagonists, are really quite brutal. There is a fair amount of sadism on show, but I thought that it was well done. The structure and pacing of the book I thought was great, initially I was daunted about reading such a long book for book club since we only have a month, but I finished it with plenty of time left.