I'm trying to find an old book that I fell in love with as a young teen (late70s). I don't remember the title/author. Believe it was written in 60's or early 70s. It was about a family or community separated by others after a war or something. They lived on the coast , possibly Florida, or the gulf. They found salt while on one of their boating trips trying to feed their family. It was something they could use to trade for food and stuff because of iodine.

I remember the grandfather or uncle took the young boy fishing but the fish were getting scarce. The boy had heard an old story from this man about someone cheating in a fishing contest by using a goldfish as bait. Because they are so shiny it's easy to catch fish with them. Food is getting really scarce and he really wants to help feed his family so he uses his younger sisters goldfish as bait to catch the last fish in the lake. I remember them wondering how he could have caught the fish then discovering the empty fish's. The sister originally had 3 or 4 goldfish but now her tank was empty.

I wish I could remember more of the story. It was the very first apocalyptic type book I'd ever read and it was that book that got me hooked. My older brother borrowed it to have reading material in the "loo" and promised hed give it back. Of course he didn't.

If anyone remembers reading this book (whether while in the loo or not) :) I would be so happy to find out the name and other so I can read it again . Thanks for your help ~ KJNOLAN

PS. I've tried all the book search sites and it must be one of those books that not too many people read or its just been such a long time since it was published. I don't believe it won any awards or anything and that might be why the other sites don't seem to know it. The few libraries I went to were the kind with everything on computer but the librarian didn't seem to recognise the book by my weak description and they couldn't find anything researching their own databases.

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank