A riveting and brilliantly original exploration of our fantasies of the end of the world, from Byron and Mary Shelley to Adam McKay's Don't Look Up and Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, by the Baillie Gifford and Orwell prize-shortlisted author of The Ministry of Truth and co-host of the podcast 'Origin Story'

A brilliantly original exploration of our obsession with the end of the world, from Mary Shelley’s The Last Man to the Manic Street Preachers’ Everything Must Go.

'Brilliant, scholarly, sharp and witty’ – Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

'Will make you happy to be alive and reading – until the lights go out . . . Brilliant' – The Spectator

For two millennia, Christians have anticipated the end of the world, haunted by the apocalyptic visions of the Book of Revelation. But over the past two centuries, these dark fantasies have given way to secular stories of how the world, our planet, or our species (or all of the above) might be annihilated.

In Everything Must Go – a cultural history of the modern world that weaves together politics, history, science, high and popular culture – Dorian Lynskey explores the endings that we have read, listened to, or watched, while perched on the edge of our seats with eyes wide, (mostly) loving every moment.

Whether with visions of destruction by nuclear holocaust or a mighty collision with a meteor, a devastating epidemic or a violent takeover by robots, why do we like to scare ourselves, and why do we keep coming back for more?

Deeply illuminating about our past, our present and – given the revelation that the end of the world has seemingly always been nigh – hopeful about our future, Everything Must Go will grip you from beginning to, well, end.

'I was blown away by this book' – Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland

'Impossibly epic, brain-expanding, life-affirming and profound' – Ian Dunt, author of How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't

"Clever and voluminous . . . So engagingly plotted and written that it’s a pleasure to bask in its constant stream of remarkable titbits and illuminating insights." - The Guardian

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

"Lynskey has a journalist’s eye for a great story and a killer quotation . . . He is ridiculously well informed." - Literary Review

"A fascinating guide . . . full of lesser-known cultural gems." - New Scientist

"A major piece of work, [a] heavyweight yet fleet-of-foot look at humankind’s fixation on the end of days, told through the prism of history, religion, literature, popular art, science and more, as compelling as it is authoritative." - The Telegraph

"For a book drenched in destruction, Everything Must Go is not depressing, and often wryly funny. It is incredibly deeply researched, fluently written, moving deftly between close-up detail and broad-brush analysis." - The Arts Desk