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.'
Everything Must Go will make you happy to be alive and reading – until the lights go out . . . Brilliant.'
Lynskey has a journalist’s eye for a great story and a killer quotation . . . He is ridiculously well informed.Lynskey's
encyclopedic knowledge . . . and his glee at the sheer inventiveness of the doomsayers' creations, make this an unlikely
page-turner . . . a curiously
entertaining read.A
fascinating guide . . . full of lesser-known cultural gems.We keep having conversations these days about how it feels like the End Times . . . turns out, we've ALWAYS felt it's the End Times.
I cannot recommend Dorian Lynskey’s book enough. For a book about Armageddon, it's very uplifting.A rich and
remarkable bookI was blown away by this book.
The staggering range of references, the razor-sharp analysis, the wisdom, left me gasping out loud at times. Lynskey also somehow manages to make a book about the end of the world feel . . . hopeful.
One of the best non-fiction writers around.
So enjoyable, that I didn't want it to end – the world, or the book.
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.
Impossibly epic, brain-expanding, life-affirming and profound. You’ll never see humanity the same way again.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.From the Baillie Gifford and Orwell Prize longlisted author of
The Ministry of Truth, an equally original and revealing exploration of one of the central concerns of our times: fantasies and nightmares of the end of the world, from Mary Shelley’s
The Last Man to the Manic Street Preachers’
Everything Must GoA 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
Dorian Lynskey writes about music, film, books and politics for publications including
The Guardian,
The Observer, the
New Statesman,
GQ,
Billboard,
Empire, and
Mojo. His first book was
33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs. A study of thirty-three pivotal songs with a political message, it was
NME's Book of the Year and a 'Music Book of the Year' in
The Daily Telegraph. His second book,
The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell's 1984, was longlisted for both the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Orwell Prize. He hosts the podcasts 'Origin Story' and 'Oh God, What Now?'.
