Synopses & Reviews
A hopeful, speculative short story collection about how humanity grapples in a world transformed by climate change.
A vast caravan of RVs roam 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 her characters face mirror those of our modern age. Spanning the length of our very solar system, the fifteen stories in this collection explore a myriad of potential futures, all while reminding us that our world is precious, and that protecting it has the potential to bring us all together.
Review
"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
Review
"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
Review
"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
About the Author
ALLEGRA HYDE is the author of the novel Eleutheria and the story collection Of This New World, which won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, The Best Small Fictions, The Best American Travel Writing, and elsewhere. She lives in Ohio and teaches at Oberlin College.