9781915290168

15/05/25

PB

268 pages

WINNER OF THE 2026 KATE O’BRIEN AWARD

‘Original and lyrical … unlike anything I’ve read in recent memory’

— Johny Pitts, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Open Book

‘Its originality lies in the appeal of the narrative voice, one of millennial

diffidence that is still somehow salted with optimism’

— Erica Wagner, The Guardian

‘Ambitious, inventive and stirring debut novel’

— Niamh Donnelly, Irish Times

‘brilliant and daring debut … this is a novel of planetary catastrophe like

no other, eschewing the hackneyed clichés of the genre’

— Eoghan Smith, Irish Examiner

‘The first-person narration is smart and tight, and the humour is

razor-sharp … Gethan Dick is a writer worthy of our time’

— Anne Griffin, Irish Independent

‘Vast, generous, funny, resistant and alive’

— Valérie Manteau, novelist and winner of the Prix Renaudot

The thing about the end of the world is that it happens all the time.

Someone leaves and it’s the end of the world.

Someone comes back and it’s the end of the world.

Here is a novel about hope, wolves, companionship and resilience, hunger and gold. It’s about an underachieving millennial, a retired midwife and a charismatic Dubliner who set out from London after the end of the world to cycle to a sanctuary in the southern Alps.

It’s about packing light and choosing the right companions and trousers: what’s worth knowing, what’s worth living, and holding on to your sense of humour in moments big and small.

It’s about the fact that the world ends all the time. It’s about what to do next.