The Rolling Apocalypse of ‘The End of Everything’
The Atlantic · Hillary Kelly ·
A new novel inverts the dystopian formula, resonating with the modern feeling of slow-rolling collapse.
What If the World Never Ends?
A new novel inverts the dystopian formula, resonating with the modern feeling of slow-rolling collapse.
On a patch of ground in the City of London, the exact site of the former East India Company’s headquarters, stands a puzzling structure with the nickname the “Inside-Out Building.” Unlike the glittering, knifelike high-rises that surround it, the edifice is covered in a shell of equipment: all of the air ducts, electrical lines, elevators, and pipes run up the exterior. Inside, Lloyd’s of London, the three-century-old powerhouse firm, props up the globe’s insurers and guarantees financial security. So when a race of amorphous beings called the iGhetti arrives in England, Lloyd’s seems like a logical target. There is no better way to dominate humanity than to take over the economic heart of the empire. And there might be no better place for M. John Harrison to situate his new, Booker Prize–shortlisted novel, The End of Everything, than a building of great significance that is also irresistibly weird.
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