The Catastrophe Hour Selected Essays

From the New York Times–bestselling author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays.

“For the last five or six years, on many afternoons around 4 or 5 p.m., I’ve been overcome with the sensation that my life is effectively over. Note the personal touch here. This is not a sensation of the world ending, which has been in vogue for quite some time now, and maybe for good reason. It’s a distinct feeling of being at the end of my days. My time, while technically not ‘up,’ is disappearing in the rearview mirror. The fact that this feeling of ambient doom tends to coincide with the blue-tinged, pre-gloaming light of the late afternoon lends to the whole thing a cosmic beauty, as devastating as it is awe-inspiring. As such, I’ve dubbed this the catastrophe hour.”

Written between 2016 and 2023, these essays are classic Daum, showcasing the author’s wit, her intellect, and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Delving into divorce, dating, music, friendship, beauty, aging, death and money, Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists.

Meghan Daum is the author of six books, most recently The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through The New Culture Wars, a New York Times Notable Book of 2019. Her collection of original essays, The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects Of Discussion, won the 2015 Pen Center USA Award for creative nonfiction, and she has been the recipient of fellowships from The Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.