Everything Feels Like the End of the World

 Everything Feels Like the End of the World

Reviewed By  Ian Banks       September 5, 2022

 

Author  Else Fitzgerald

Distributor:      Allen & Unwin
ISBN:                 9781761065699
Publisher:         Allen & Unwin
Release Date:   August 2022  

Website:    https://www.allenandunwin.com 

In a series of essays, debut author Else Fitzgerald offers or speculates, about the world in the far distant future, or perhaps not so far distance future; a world where climate change is wreaking havoc, robotics is in full flow and the world is having to be protected from the ravaging of the sun’s rays by a massive solar shield.

While this is, or could be, or may be, speculation, perhaps the reality of life in the future is not going to be so very different to that already imagined by the many who are concerned about the negligence shown towards the real issues that affect us all daily.

Fitzgerald calls out many of these issues which have come full circle and are now facing the then population: a mother’s dilemma about her unborn child, the effect of robotics on so much of society, the terrifying effect of drought, fire and flood on the delicate Australian landscape, cyber technology and the race to move to some other place, all interestingly hinted at in the very real world of now.

Her powerful understanding of the many drivers of people and society add a certain poignancy to the stories, each one depicting what could truly be a very bleak future. Reality is inbuilt by the recent cataclysmic events in Australia of devastating floods, raging bush fires, colder than expect winter temperatures and the blatant disregard for the environment shown by governments of the world.

Devastating and all too easy to imagine, Everything Feels Like the End of the World has an almost apocalyptic tone or mood, overlaying the deep sadness that is prevalent in the younger generation as they survey the world and look forward to the yet unknown future, with a sense of dread unknown to previous generations.

Deeply moving this is one book which will, in not all but many of the stories told, remain in the reader’s memory for time to come.

Everything Feels Like the End of the World is a must read if you are at all interested in what the future could possibly for hold for coming generations.

Fiction