Wikipedia article
'Blackout: Tomorrow Will Be Too Late' is a disaster thriller book by the Austrian author Marc Elsberg, described by Penguin Books as "a 21st-century high-concept disaster thriller".[
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Published in German in 2012, it had been translated into fifteen languages and sold a million copies worldwide.[[https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1111908/blackout/ 'Blackout' (Marc Elsberg)], Penguin Books (page visited on 3 September 2016).] The English version was published in 2017.[
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The novel is about a European power outage due to a cyberattack. For realism the book is written on the basis of interviews with intelligence and computer security officials.[
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Plot
The novel starts with a collapse of electrical grids across Europe, plunging the population into darkness and disaster.[ Blaise Gauquelin, [http://next.liberation.fr/livres/2015/05/06/cout-de-la-panne_1294583 "Cot de la panne. Marc Elsberg plonge lEurope dans le noir avec laide de hackers"], 'Libration', 6 May 2015 (page visited on 4 September 2016).] The prolonged electricity cut causes major problems: no more petrol, no telephone, no food in supermarkets, no cash machines working, nuclear disasters, etc.[Nico Fried, [http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/zivilschutzkonzept-vater-der-porzellankiste-1.3134539 "Innenminister in der Kritik - De Maizire stellt Zivilschutzkonzept vor"], 'Sddeutsche Zeitung', 24 August 2016 (accessed 4 September 2016). In this article, the German Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maizire, cites Marc Elsberg's book 'Blackout' to illustrate the vulnerability of the power supply infrastructure.] A former computer hacker and IT professional tries to find out the root cause for this. While doing so he himself becomes a hunted person as officials find suspicious e-mails sent from his laptop and think that he is involved.
Film adaptation
The novel is currently being adapted into a miniseries starring Moritz Bleibtreu, directed by Oliver Rihs and Lancelot von Naso and is scheduled to begin filming in fall 2020.
See also
* Societal collapse
* Cyberwarfare
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References
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