In a Tuesday, “Journal News” profile, YA author Todd Strasser discussed his newest book “Fallout.” It is set in 1962 and is only his second autobiographical novel. The plot is about a father who builds a bomb shelter to protect his family during the Cuba Missile Crisis.
Strasser’s father did build a shelter in the home in which they lived at that time. Recently, he got in touch with the family who now lives in the house. They didn’t know that it was there because you have to go through a trap door that was in a closet under carpet. The family did venture into the shelter and found some canned goods and a newspaper article on the Missile Crisis.
“Fallout” is Strasser’s 100th original novel. He chose to write about a past time because as he has gotten older he started to look back. He felt that his father had given him an amazing event to write about and so he did.