The story that was never meant to happen… but happened anyway.
Last summer, while slowly roasting under her garden gazebo and writing a quiet-ish Siberian story, Marie MacFarlane decided to take a coffee break.
While waiting for the kettle to boil, she absentmindedly scrolled through her phone, looking at some terrifying world news, all more or less announcing the end of the world in one way or another.
Then one article caught her attention.
Never mind what the article was about. It’s the chain of events afterwards that matters here.
One thing leading to another, she found herself asking Google Gemini:
“What does ‘a loose nuke’ mean?”
Then shortly followed by… “How can a nuclear weapon go loose and no one notice it???”
…Well, the rest is history.
A month and a half later, after that eye-opening, spit-your-coffee-all-over-your-keyboard lightbulb moment, here it is:
The End of… the End.
Enjoy NATO’s version of the apocalypse.
So… What is The End of… the end about?
Europe…. The hottest summer ever recorded…
Suddenly, across the continent, political leaders are peering down at their phones.
NATO is calling.
Something has gone loose…
And that thing is
the sort of thing that shouldn't have gone loose at all.
And Moscow is no longer picking up the phone.
As world leaders descend upon Brussels in an increasingly desperate attempt to prevent World War Three,
the emergency meeting rapidly gives way to paranoia,
accusations, alcohol, questionable intelligence and decisions that really shouldn't be made by anyone with access to nuclear weapons... and a misunderstanding that should have been cleared up several hours ago.
In MacFarlane's third novel and - her first geopolitical satire - she throws the reader headfirst into a world of geopolitical chaos, disorganised governments and leaders who, after a few drinks, still panic, argue and behave remarkably like one big dysfunctional family.
After all, what could possibly go wrong?
