Public Access Afterworld
- Author Jane Schoenbrun
- Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
- Publish Date 27 October 2026
- Run Time 10 hours
- Format Audio
- Genre Contemporary fantasy, Dark fantasy, Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging, Narrative theme: Social issues.
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What to expect
'A riot in novel form by an author with an utterly singular, original vision. Public Access Afterworld will leave you breathless and desperate for a sequel'
KALIANE BRADLEY, author of The Ministry of Time
'Jane Schoenbrun has the literary voice I've been famished for. Public Access Afterworld gave me a vertiginous thrill I haven't encountered since David Mitchell'
TORREY PETERS, author of Stag Dance and Detransition, Baby
'I stayed up all night binge-reading . . . Adroitly beautiful, funny, and scathing'
SENLINYU, author of Alchemised
On 12th June 2009, David Sawyer and Erin Morrison, two lonely, TV-obsessed suburban teens who might be falling in love, gather in Erin's basement to watch TV's analogue-to-digital transition. Beneath the static that follows, Erin catches a glimpse of a mysterious broadcast from a TV network called 'Public Access Afterworld'. Soon after that, she vanishes - changing the trajectory of David's life forever.
Fourteen years later, Bethany Peters toils through the night shift at megacorp GlobalVill's bleak Austin campus. A trans content moderator, she spends her evenings reviewing an endless stream of horrific videos. But gradually a pattern emerges in the form of a young streamer, Jules, calling out the same words: Public Access Afterworld.
When Bethany sets out to rescue Jules, she begins an epic journey that sweeps from rural Texas to 1940s Los Alamos - and all the way back to that basement where David and Erin first encountered a world at the edges of reality itself.
| Author | Jane Schoenbrun |
|---|---|
| Duration | 10 hours |
| Release Date | |
| ISBN | 9781399747387 |
| Format | Audiobook |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
| Genre | Contemporary fantasy, Dark fantasy, Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Identity / belonging, Narrative theme: Social issues |
| Availability | AU, GB, IE |
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