Duncan’s Colony — 1982 ·

By Natalie L. M. Petesch

"A brilliant political fable. Highly recommended."

Library Journal

"A well-wrought look into the lives and motivations of the eight men and women who try-and ineditably fail-to create a perfect living system."

Carnegie Magazine

“During the nineteen sixties, following the missile crisis and during the Vietnam War, communitarian societies began to reappear in the United States. Those who were of an invincibly optimistic nature gathered together in agrarian or utopian communes reminiscent of the nineteenth century. Others who believed that these crises and wars augured the end of modern civilization by nuclear warfare, gathered together for a brief season of love in colonies where they hoped to survive the destruction of the world. This is the story of eight people who lived together for nearly a year in such a colony: Duncan's Colony… ”
-From Introduction


Duncan's Colony is the story of four men and four women, strangers who have joined together, in the desert of the American Southwest, in the hope of surviving a nuclear holocaust they fear is inevitable.

Though they have come together to survive the world's destruction, they seem to be dying, one by one, picked off by their emotions. And so, as they rehearse the death of the planet, the colonist learn also the rage to live.

Natalie L. M. Petesch has published ten previous books of fiction, including the Swallow Press titles Duncan’s Colony, Flowering Mimosa, Justina of Andalusia, and The Immigrant Train. She lives in Pittsburgh.