The Stand

A man breaks out of a government biological testing facility without knowing that he carries a mutated strain of influenza. Within weeks the super-flu has killed roughly 99 percent of the world's population, and the few who are immune wake up to emptied towns, silent highways and no one in charge.

The survivors are frightened and disoriented, and they gravitate toward two very different figures. In Boulder, Colorado, Mother Abagail, a gentle woman of 108, calls people to build a peaceful community. Far from her, Randall Flagg, the charismatic and menacing Dark Man, gathers followers who share his appetite for chaos and violence.

As each camp grows stronger, the survivors must decide whom to follow, and that choice will shape the future of what remains of humanity. King uses the collapse of the old world to stage a struggle between good and evil, and the book is widely regarded as one of the defining post-apocalyptic novels. The Atlantic named it among the Great American Novels of the past 100 years.

This edition includes the restored and new material first published in the Complete and Uncut Edition.