Everything Must Go

'A brilliant, scholarly, sharp and witty account of our weird eternal obsession with the end times... So enjoyable, that I didn't want it to end - the world, or the book.’ – Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

'Everything Must Go will make you happy to be alive and reading – until the lights go out . . . Brilliant' – The Spectator

A riveting and brilliantly original exploration of our fantasies of the end of the world, from Mary Shelley's The Last Man to Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, by the Baillie Gifford and Orwell prize-shortlisted writer and co-host of the podcast 'Origin Story'.

For two millennia, Christians have looked forward to the end, haunted by the apocalyptic visions of the Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation. But for two centuries or more, these dark fantasies have given way to secular stories of how the world, our planet, or our species (or all of the above) might come to an end.

Dorian Lynskey's fascinating book explores the endings that we have read, listened to or watched over the last two dozen decades, whether they be by the death and destruction of a nuclear holocaust or collision with a meteor or comet, devastating epidemic or takeover by robots or computers.

The result is nothing less than a cultural history of the modern world, weaving together politics, history, science, high and popular culture in a book that is uniquely original, grippingly readable and deeply illuminating about both us and our times.

'I was blown away by this book... Lynskey is one of the best non-fiction writers around.' – Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland

'Impossibly epic, brain-expanding, life-affirming and profound. You’ll never see humanity the same way again.' – Ian Dunt, author of How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't