SOLVED. Sci-Fi, man alone in a town, doesn't know how he got there, then a woman appears, they want to escape but reality "ends" outside of town [s]

[Simon]

Hi,

I'm searching for a sci-fi book I read about 20 years ago. I rented it at the local library.

As far as I remember, the story is about a man, who does'nt really know where he is or how he got there, alone in a town. There are no other people in the town. Pretty soon, a woman seemingly appears out of nowhere, with no recollection of how she got there.

Of course they fall in love, even if the man initially does'nt find the lady that attractive at first. I remember them to be middle-aged.

After a time, they are tired of their environment and to be alone, so they want to get out and explore. But they can't. Reality seems to end not far from town, all around it.

(view spoiler)[Pretty much at the end of the book, it is revealed that they are actually in a computer simulation run by aliens who want to study the long-gone human race. They developed technology to extract all of a person's memory and everything they were from a few dna samples. I think I remember the aliens mentionning that the dna samples came from old bone fragments. The 2 simulated humans are offered to continue living in the simulation or just terminate, I believe. I think they chose to continue living in the simulation. (hide spoiler)]

Thanks for your help :)

[Michele]

This sounds vaguely familiar (also kind of like a Twilight Zone episode!). When you read it, do you remember if it was a new book or an old one? Any recollection of how long it was -- novella, middle-size novel, humungous doorstop size?

[Simon]

It was definitively a pocket sized edition, and pretty thin at ~250-300 pages.

It wasn't a new book, but I couldn't say if it was 1 or 20 years old. That would put the book at anywhere from ~1975 to ~1995, *IF* this was a first print ;)

I was reading a lot a classic/golden age sci-fi book at the time and, AFAIK, it felt as it fitted with those other books (writing style, themes, size, etc), but it doesn't necessarily means it was written within that same era...

Thanks for trying to help :)

[Simon]

Have some more information from another person who vaguely remember the book:

I can't recall the title of the novel either, but i remember a bit of the story : When the man wakes (possibly in a hotel), the town is filled with dead bodies. Soon after, rats swarm the place. The second day, there are only bones left. The day after that, the bones disappear. I also read this novel in french, so it might not be impossible that the book did not have a wide publication.

[Scott]

Michele wrote: "This sounds vaguely familiar (also kind of like a Twilight Zone episode!). When you read it, do you remember if it was a new book or an old one? Any recollection of how long it was -- novella, mi..."

There were at least a few movies with similar concepts (at least in part): (view spoiler)[Identity, The Thirteenth Floor, Dark City (hide spoiler)]

[Simon]

I'm pretty sure its: http://www.noosfere.com/icarus/livres...

I'm ordering a copy to confirm.

[Michele]

Le Désert Du Monde for the click. This Jean-Pierre Andrevon guy looks very prolific, I shall have to check him out, especially Tout À La Main: Mémoires D'un Dernier Homme. I'm always on the lookout for good non-American SF!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Simon, did your book turn out to be Le Désert Du Monde?

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Also, is there an English translation?

[Simon]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Simon, did your book turn out to be Le Désert Du Monde?"

Sorry for the delay; yet it was :) Was very happy to finally find it :)

@Justanotherbiblophile: sorry, I don't know.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Great!