Notes from an apocalypse : a personal journey to the end of the world and back / Mark O'Connell.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Doubleday, [2020]Edition: First editionDescription: 252 pages ; 22 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780385543002
- 038554300X
- 9780525435310
- 052543531X
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 613.69 O18 | Available | 33111009638988 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
"Harrowing, tender-hearted, and funny as hell" --Jenny Offill
"Fascinating...Oddly uplifting" --The Economist
"Smart, funny, irreverent, and philosophically rich" -- Wall Street Journal
By the author of the award-winning To Be a Machine , an absorbing, deeply felt book about our anxious present tense--and coming to grips with the future
We're alive in a time of worst-case scenarios: The weather has gone uncanny. Old postwar alliances are crumbling. A pandemic draws our global community to a halt. Everywhere you look there's an omen, a joke whose punchline is the end of the world. How is a person supposed to live in the shadow of such a grim future? What does it mean to have children--nothing if not an act of hope--in such unsettled times? What might it be like to live through the worst? And what on Earth is anybody doing about it?
Dublin-based writer Mark O'Connell is consumed by these questions--and, as the father of two young children himself, he finds them increasingly urgent. In Notes from an Apocalypse , he crosses the globe in pursuit of answers. He tours survival bunkers in South Dakota. He ventures to New Zealand, a favored retreat of billionaires banking on civilization's collapse. He engages with would-be Mars colonists, preppers, right-wing conspiracists. And he bears witness to those places, like Chernobyl, that the future has already visited--real-life portraits of the end of the world as we know it. In doing so, he comes to a resolution, while offering readers a unique window into our contemporary imagination.
Both investigative and deeply personal, Notes from an Apocalypse is an affecting, humorous, and surprisingly hopeful meditation on our present moment. With insight, humanity, and wit, O'Connell leaves you to wonder: What if the end of the world isn't the end of the world?
Tribulations -- Preparations -- Luxury survival -- Bolt-hole -- Off-world colony -- Under the hide -- The final resting place of the future -- The redness of the map.
"By the author of the award-winning To Be a Machine, a deeply considered look at the people and places in confrontation with the end of our days. We're alive in a time of worst-case scenarios: The weather has gone uncanny, volatile. Our old post-war alliances are crumbling. Everywhere you look there's an omen, a joke whose punchline is the end of the world. How are we to live in the shadow of such a grim future? What does the world hold for our children? What might it be like to live through the worst? And what is anybody doing about it? Dublin-based writer Mark O'Connell ("wryly humorous, cogently insightful"--NPR) is possessed by these questions. In Notes from an Apocalypse, he crosses the globe in pursuit of answers. He tours survival bunkers in South Dakota. He ventures to New Zealand, a favored retreat of billionaires banking on civilization's collapse. And he bears witness to those places where the future has already arrived--real-life portraits of the end of the world as we know it. In doing so, he offers us a unique window into our apocalyptic imagination. Part tour, part pilgrimage, Notes from an Apocalypse is an affecting and hopeful meditation on our alarming present tense. With insight, humanity, and wit, O'Connell leaves you to wonder: What if the end of the world isn't the end of the world?"-- Provided by publisher.