Shirley Jackson Award Finalist: "The stories in this collection range from unsettling to downright chilling, but are uniformly intelligent . . . and memorable." -Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times-bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

This collection of nine stories, suffused with apocalyptic anxiety and stubborn hope, comes from an author widely acclaimed for his mix of the fantastic, the menacing, and the melancholy-and includes, among other tales, "The End of the World As We Know It," a Nebula and International Horror Guild Award finalist; "The End of the End of Everything," a Shirley Jackson Award winner; and "The Bluehole," a Bram Stoker Award finalist.

"Nine gorgeously-written and closely-observed tales of ordinary people trying to hold it together when everything is falling apart. . . . I can't think of a more accomplished master of the fantastic short form. Prepare to hunt feral Girl Scouts! Pack your bags for a dinosaur safari! Invite friends to your end of the world party! Dale Bailey is the poet of the apocalypse; his stories are guaranteed to haunt you." -James Patrick Kelly, Nebula Award-winning author of The First Law of Thermodynamics

"There's a wonderful clarity in the writing, a strong emotional center in each piece, fully realized characters, and as dark as these pieces get, and they get dark, Bailey, unlike a lot of his contemporaries, never forgets the humor, which makes the darkness more profound. Nine stories that will stay with you long after the reading is done." -Jeffrey Ford, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Big Dark Hole