The first finale: five stories and a novella

Michael R. Kay
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:45:17 PDT

The stories and novella that make up this collection focus on the day-to-day consequences of twenty-first century issues. From fame to famine, climate change to opioids, and from grief to glamor, these stories are animated with the noise of radio and television and the paranoia of American media. A young woman destroys the room of a museum to rid herself of the gaze of cellphone cameras, a sentimental son fights his father on a freeway bridge in memory of his brother, and a father of two loses himself in the woods after the apocalypse fails to arrive. These stories are structured nearly in reverse chronological order, from a dystopian near-future of war and industrial tyranny back to the turn of the recent millennium. Between their chronological structure and their intimate relationship with twenty-first century issues, the stories trace a path from an imagined dystopia to the paranoia and distrust that began the century. At their start, large-scale political, social, and cultural issues are at the forefront, but the collection moves onto more intimate personal and familial issues, ultimately ending with a combination of both. All in all, these stories seek to illuminate the many ways in which the newest century challenges individuals' capacity to find truth, happiness, and meaning in a world of rapid change.