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The End of the World is Flat
The End of the World is Flat

The End of the World is Flat

FICTION

240 Pages, 5 x 7.75

Formats: Trade Paper, EPUB

Trade Paper, $15.95 (CA $21.95) (US $15.95)

Publication Date: August 2021

ISBN 9781785632402

Rights: US & CA

Eye Books (Aug 2021)
Lightning Books

eBook

eBook Editions Available

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Price: $15.95
 
 

Overview

‘Skewers the trans rights row with some nifty, often snort-inducingly funny satire’ THE TIMES

‘A bracingly sharp satire on the sleep of reason and the tyranny of twaddle’ FRANCIS WHEEN

Mel Winterbourne’s modest map-making charity, the Orange Peel Foundation, has achieved all its aims and she’s ready to shut it down. But glamorous tech billionaire Joey Talavera has other ideas. He hijacks the foundation for his own purpose: to convince the world that the earth is flat.

Using the dark arts of social media at his new master’s behest, Mel’s ruthless young successor, Shane Foxley, turns science on its head. He persuades gullible online zealots that old-style ‘globularism’ is hateful. Teachers and airline pilots face ruin if they reject the new ‘True Earth’ orthodoxy.

Can Mel and her fellow heretics – vilified as ‘True-Earth Rejecting Globularists’ (Tergs) – thwart Orange Peel before insanity takes over? Might the solution to the problem lie in the 15th century?

Using his trademark mix of history and satire to poke fun at modern foibles, Simon Edge is at his razor-sharp best in a caper that may be more relevant than you think.

Reviews

‘This sparkling little comic novel is more than playful: it’s a satire of Swiftian ferocity, a thinly veiled parody of a prevailing madness of the hour’ Matthew Parris, columnist, The Times

‘A bracingly sharp satire on the sleep of reason and the tyranny of twaddle’ Francis Wheen, author of How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World

‘Skewers the trans rights row with some nifty, often snort-inducingly funny satire’ The Times

‘A biting satire’ Andrew Doyle, author of The New Puritans

‘I laughed so hard I nearly fell in my cauldron. A masterpiece’ Julie Bindel, author of Feminism for Women

‘This is Animal Farm for the era of gender lunacy, with jokes’ Jane Harris, author of Sugar Money

‘A satire that skewers the insanity of gender ideology with the wit and brilliance of a modern-day Swift’ Helen Joyce, author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality

‘Edge holds social foibles and cod science up to ridicule with grace, wit and charm’ Helen Dale, The Critic

‘Mixes history with a hilarious spoof of identity politics, virtue signalling and cancel culture’ Saga Magazine

‘More than a clever jab at trans ideology: a warning about the vulnerability of liberal values’ Jo Bartosch, Lesbian & Gay News

‘This merry romp punctures the idiocy that would turn language and good sense upside down and try to divide us all into either true believers or bigots’ Simon Fanshawe, author of The Power of Difference

‘Wonderful. A must-read for all’ Julian Vigo, Savage Minds magazine and podcast

‘This very, very interesting book about the flat-earthers of the world’ Mike Graham, Talk Radio

‘Turns out I’ve been proven wrong: the world is not beyond satire. I know this thanks to Simon Edge and his very funny book’ Jonathan Kay, Quillette podcast

‘In a refreshingly pointed reflection on the zeitgeist – a light-hearted lampoon, underpinned with wit and intelligence – Edge crafts an entirely conceivable plot, a parody that is awkwardly close to reality’ Yorkshire Times

Author Biography

Simon Edge was born in Chester and read philosophy at Cambridge University. He was editor of the pioneering London paper Capital Gay before becoming a gossip columnist on the Evening Standard and then a feature writer on the Daily Express, where he was also a theatre critic for many years. He has an MA in Creative Writing from City University, London, where he also taught literary criticism. He is the author of four novels: The Hopkins Conundrum, longlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award, The Hurtle of Hell, A Right Royal Face-Off, and Anyone for Edmund?