When the English Fall / David Williams, 242 pp.

An Amish community in Pennsylvania watches the night sky dance with angels on the horizon, like the Northern Lights, and then strange things begin to happen.  Planes fall from the sky; the roads go quiet; the 'English' neighbors' tractors and refrigerators no longer work.  When the English Fall tells a story of the apocalypse in the form of a massive solar flare and its aftermath from the point of view of those who are at first only minimally impacted by the events.  But as food grows scarce among 'the English,' the community is forced to reckon with danger and violence that no longer respects the Amish boundaries.  A first novel that is remarkably good: eerie, suspenseful, believable and smart.