Synopses & Reviews
Earth is the mental asylum of the universe and humans are the incurable inmates. .Now the asylum is being shut down.
Everyone Says That at the End of the World traces the adventures of a ghost-haunted slacker couple expecting their first child, an outrageously arrogant television actor seeking redemption and a prophetic hermit crab on a cross-country quest as they struggle to survive the final four days of life on Earth. Inter-dimensional time travelers, Jesus clones, and prosthetic limbs all play a role in the catastrophic events leading to the planets end.
Combining humor, philosophical inquiry and unforgettable characters, Egerton leads us through the most bizarre apocalypse ever put to paper.
Review
Praise for
Everyone Says That at the End of the World:
"The world ends in Austin, Texas, and a multitude of less cool venues, in Egertons seriocomic eschatological whimsy
A brainy, often riotous, ultimately moving Cats Cradle for our time peopled with reluctant seekers of spiritual nourishment who might have stepped from the pages of Flannery OConnor." Kirkus
"Egerton (The Book of Harold) juggles farce, religious satire, philosophy, and a road trip as a slew of characters converge in a manic quest. A well-traveled hermit crab, 38 mistreated Jesus clones, sleep-deprived monks, and an oft-exchanged prosthetic leg figure into this rollicking madhouse of an apocalypse
Egerton is very funny." Library Journal
"People at the coffee shop were actually staring at meI don't think they fully believed that a book could make a person laugh that hard. Egerton has written a expansive novel that is generous enough to cover the end of the world, and the beginning, and a good number of the key points in between, and filled it with warmth, intelligence, wisdom, and humora personal and universal cosmology that made me laugh and think and feel and laugh some more. I think this is a future classic, and people will be reading this book decades from now. I know I will."Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
"In this expansive, funny, touching epicpart travelogue, part quest narrativeEgerton offers up a Texan love letter generous enough to include even the nutria."Amelia Gray, author of Threats
Synopsis
In this "often riotous, ultimately moving Cat's Cradle for our time," a Texas couple prepares for the apocalypse (Kirkus Reviews).
In Austin, Milton and Rica are expecting their first child. It's four days and counting. Not for the baby. But for the end of the world. Evidence: Haydon Brock, a godless television star has suddenly traded his Hollywood fame for salvation. A prophetic hermit crab is embarking on an unfathomable cross-country quest. Planes are dropping from the sky. And the president and first lady disappear. No omen is too inexplicable to Milton. He's learned for a fact that our planet is one vast asylum for the incurably insane. And its cosmic guardians are about to close down the whole damn thing.
Then Milton receives one more premonition: to seek out Haydon now holed up somewhere in Marfa. To what end Milton hasn't a clue. To find out, Milton, Rica, and their best friend head west across an increasingly cataclysmic landscape of inter-dimensional time travelers, Jesus clones, sleep-deprived monks, ghosts, and angels in an epic and manic quest to outrun the last days on Earth.
Combining humor, philosophical inquiry and an unforgettable cast of characters, "this sharp-witted satire" (Booklist) "is a future classic, and people will be reading it] decades from now. I know I will" (Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe).
About the Author
Owen Egerton is one of the talents behind the award-winning The Sinus Show and Master Pancake Theater at the Alamo Drafthouse Theater, and for several years was the artistic director of Austins National Comedy Theatre. Hes written screenplays for Fox, Warner Brothers and Disney studios. He is also the author of the one-man play
The Other Side of Sleep and the novel
The Book of Harold, which is currently in development as a television series with Warner Bros. Television. He lives in Austin.