Cover of Public Access Afterworld

Public Access Afterworld

Written by Jane Schoenbrun

Pre-order2 listings across 2 sellers

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 from the ocean of digital violence in the form of a young streamer, Jules, calling out the same words: Public Access Afterworld.

When Bethany ignores the guidance of her corporate overseers and sets out to rescue Jules, she begins an epic journey that sweeps from rural Texas to the heart of American darkness in 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.

Available to pre-order

Coles Books

Hardback

Signed

ISBN 9781399747356

Pre-order
£20.00
Available from 27 October 2026(109 days)
SignedAuthor signedPre-release
History (2 events)
First seen· Pre-order · £20.009 Jul 2026
Release date27 Oct 2026

Last confirmed 9 Jul 2026

View at Coles Books

Waterstones

Hardback · Hodder & Stoughton

Exclusive Edition

Pre-order
£20.00
Available from 27 October 2026(109 days)
Pre-release

Exclusive Edition with exclusive edge, endpaper and case

History (2 events)
First seen· Pre-order · £20.009 Jul 2026
Release date27 Oct 2026

Last confirmed 9 Jul 2026

View at Waterstones