What is the setting of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson?

The events of the novel take place in suburban Los Angeles between January 1976 and January 1979, which at the time the novel was written, was 22 years in the future. An atomic war has left the landscape desolate, overridden with insects, and subject to frequent dust storms. Robert's house sits amid the charred remains of what once were houses on either side of him, and a huge fiery pit into which the dead bodies are buried is part of the landscape. The atmosphere is often bleak and cloudy, and many of the vampire confrontations take place at dusk, which contributes to the meaning of the story. Only occasionally does Robert venture into a sunlit day, as he does when he meets Ruth. The final confrontation with the mutants takes Robert into a prison hospital, where he is finally released from his three-year-long imprisonment.