In the Beginning

A satirical novel inspired by two iconic real-life court cases – one in Tennessee in the 1920s, the second in London in 2022 – which takes aim at modern crank beliefs and herd behaviour

From the author of The End of the World is Flat The Terg wars are over. Now meet the Yerfs ‘A coruscating satire on currently trendy anti-science lunacy’ Richard Dawkins When Tara Farrier returns to the UK after a long spell as an aid worker in war-torn Yemen, she’s hoping for a well-deserved rest. But a cultural battleground has emerged while she’s been away, and she’s unprepared for the sensitivities of her new colleagues at an international thinktank. A throwaway reference to volcanic activity millions of years ago gets her into hot water and she discovers she belongs to the group reviled by fashionable activists as ‘Young Earth Rejecting Fascists’, or ‘Yerfs’. Faster than she can say ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’, she is at the centre of a gruelling legal drama. In the keenly awaited follow-up to his acclaimed The End of the World is Flat, Simon Edge stabs once again at modern crank beliefs and herd behaviour with stiletto-sharp satire.