# The Night of the Long Knives

By Fritz Leiber.

"The Night of the Long Knives" by Fritz Leiber is a novel written in the late 20th century. The story unfolds in a post-apocalyptic America known as the Deathlands, an unforgiving landscape filled with radiation and danger. The main character navigates this desolate world, encountering a mysterious girl with whom he shares a fraught tension marked by their primal urges — one toward violence and the other toward intimacy. The opening of the book introduces us to a tense encounter between the protagonist, a weary scavenger, and a girl he spots in the vast, hazardous terrain. Both are armed and aware of the danger surrounding them, their paths intertwining in a complex dance of survival, fear, and attraction. As they cautiously approach one another, the narrative delves into their emotions — the conflicting desires to kill and to connect — encapsulating life in the Deathlands where the urge to murder is portrayed as a survival instinct. This initial encounter hints at both the treachery and the potential for connection in a world ravaged by chaos, setting the tone for the unfolding tale. (Summary by Project Gutenberg, written by machine.)

- Language: English
- Illustrator: Virgil Finlay
- Subjects: Science fiction, American; Dystopias -- Fiction; Apocalyptic fiction

[Read it](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/gutenberg/25024/read)
[Plain text](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/api/books/gutenberg/25024/text)

## Audiobooks of it

- [Night of the Long Knives](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/librivox/6738) by Fritz Leiber (3 h 20 min, English)

From Project Gutenberg. Public domain in the United States.