The Last Catastrophe
A hopeful, speculative short story collection about how humanity grapples in a world transformed by climate change.
Summary: 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.
Bio
Allegra Hyde graduated from Arizona State University in 2015 with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. She has since published the story collection THE LAST CATASTROPHE and the the novel ELEUTHERIA, which was named a "Best Book of 2022" by The New Yorker. Her debut story collection OF THIS NEW WORLD won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Hyde has received three Pushcart Prizes and her writing has been anthologized in Best American Travel Writing, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. She has received fellowships and grants from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, The Elizabeth George Foundation, the U.S. Fulbright Commission, and elsewhere. She teaches at Oberlin College.
Praise for this book
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
