A hopeful, speculative short story collection about how humanity grapples in a world transformed by climate change.
“Dazzling, inventive, and glinting with dark humor.” —Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun
A vast caravan of RVs roams the United States. A girl grows a unicorn horn, complicating her small-town friendships and big city ambitions. A young lady on a spaceship bonds with her AI warden while trying to avoid an arranged marriage. In Allegra Hyde’s universe nothing is as it seems, yet the challenges encountered in these pages mirror those we face in our modern age. Spanning the length of our very solar system, the fifteen stories in this collection explore a myriad of potential futures through the concept of “global weirding,” planetary and social disruptions due to climate change. In unexpected and genre-defying ways, this revelatory collection reminds us that our world is precious, and that protecting it has the potential to bring us all together.
“Dazzling, inventive, and glinting with dark humor.” —Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun
A vast caravan of RVs roams the United States. A girl grows a unicorn horn, complicating her small-town friendships and big city ambitions. A young lady on a spaceship bonds with her AI warden while trying to avoid an arranged marriage. In Allegra Hyde’s universe nothing is as it seems, yet the challenges encountered in these pages mirror those we face in our modern age. Spanning the length of our very solar system, the fifteen stories in this collection explore a myriad of potential futures through the concept of “global weirding,” planetary and social disruptions due to climate change. In unexpected and genre-defying ways, this revelatory collection reminds us that our world is precious, and that protecting it has the potential to bring us all together.
*Named a most anticipated book of the year by Our Culture Magazine and The Millions*
*Named a most anticipated science fiction and fantasy book by Polygon*
“Allegra Hyde wrote one of 2022’s best novels, Eleutheria, and her second story collection, The Last Catastrophe, contains more optimistic visions of the future than most of the books on this list, despite the specter of climate change.”
—Polygon, "The Science Fiction and Fantasy Books We’re Excited for in 2023"
“Dazzling, inventive, and glinting with dark humor, Allegra Hyde’s stories stare apocalypse straight in the eye and find precious glimmers of grace therein. This enthralling collection speaks powerfully to our time, and to those times that are still to come.”
—Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun
“I always keep an empty space on my bookshelf for my next favorite book, and The Last Catastrophe has taken that spot. A dazzling and unassumingly brilliant collection, Allegra Hyde’s stories take hold and never, ever let go. These aren’t stories you will forget—these are stories that will become part of your DNA: undeniable elements of the human experience. The Last Catastrophe is a masterwork of hope against a changing—and oftentimes unforgiving—world.”
—Morgan Talty, author of Night of the Living Rez
“Even the ghosts in this fierce, visionary story collection are vibrantly alive, full of questions about the precarious world we’ve made, and who we might become as we hurtle forward to uncertain futures. What awaits us there, in Allegra Hyde’s rowdy, unsparing imagination, is not just devastation, but sharp humor, delightful strangeness, and flashes of deliverance.”
—Caitlin Horrocks, author of Life Among the Terranauts
“I’ve admired Allegra Hyde’s stunning stories of near future and small apocalypses for years. This new collection is electrifying, filled with astonishing beauty and lyricism at the same time that it warns us of the horrors of what our futures could become and what America already is. Zookeepers, RV nomads, high school drama teachers who glow with light, body-switching beauties, zombies—the voices in this collection will keep you rapt, awestruck at what unfolds.”
—Brenda Peynado, author of The Rock Eaters
“A Molotov cocktail is a bottle of gasoline. An Allegra cocktail is a collection of stories. Both are on fire and should be hurled at the nearest representative of a corrupt regime."
—Matthew Baker, author of Why Visit America and Hybrid Creatures
*Named a most anticipated science fiction and fantasy book by Polygon*
“Allegra Hyde wrote one of 2022’s best novels, Eleutheria, and her second story collection, The Last Catastrophe, contains more optimistic visions of the future than most of the books on this list, despite the specter of climate change.”
—Polygon, "The Science Fiction and Fantasy Books We’re Excited for in 2023"
“Dazzling, inventive, and glinting with dark humor, Allegra Hyde’s stories stare apocalypse straight in the eye and find precious glimmers of grace therein. This enthralling collection speaks powerfully to our time, and to those times that are still to come.”
—Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun
“I always keep an empty space on my bookshelf for my next favorite book, and The Last Catastrophe has taken that spot. A dazzling and unassumingly brilliant collection, Allegra Hyde’s stories take hold and never, ever let go. These aren’t stories you will forget—these are stories that will become part of your DNA: undeniable elements of the human experience. The Last Catastrophe is a masterwork of hope against a changing—and oftentimes unforgiving—world.”
—Morgan Talty, author of Night of the Living Rez
“Even the ghosts in this fierce, visionary story collection are vibrantly alive, full of questions about the precarious world we’ve made, and who we might become as we hurtle forward to uncertain futures. What awaits us there, in Allegra Hyde’s rowdy, unsparing imagination, is not just devastation, but sharp humor, delightful strangeness, and flashes of deliverance.”
—Caitlin Horrocks, author of Life Among the Terranauts
“I’ve admired Allegra Hyde’s stunning stories of near future and small apocalypses for years. This new collection is electrifying, filled with astonishing beauty and lyricism at the same time that it warns us of the horrors of what our futures could become and what America already is. Zookeepers, RV nomads, high school drama teachers who glow with light, body-switching beauties, zombies—the voices in this collection will keep you rapt, awestruck at what unfolds.”
—Brenda Peynado, author of The Rock Eaters
“A Molotov cocktail is a bottle of gasoline. An Allegra cocktail is a collection of stories. Both are on fire and should be hurled at the nearest representative of a corrupt regime."
—Matthew Baker, author of Why Visit America and Hybrid Creatures
