Your worst fears about cultural collapse might be true – here’s what you can do about it

In Sarah Wilson’s new book, one page is mostly blank. It’s intended as a reprieve, a neutral space “for you to stare at for a minute while your feelings catch up”.

You will need it. In I Eat the Stars, Wilson argues that the world as we know it is in collapse – and that we are too late to avoid the worst.

This is not just about the climate, but civilisation buckling under the weight of its own complexity. Given worsening inequality, political polarisation, falling fertility, resource shortages and global conflicts, Wilson argues that we are hurtling towards the same end as ancient Rome, the Mayan civilisation and every other sophisticated society before us.

Wilson, an Australian journalist, has often been ahead of the curve, writing bestselling books about quitting sugar, anxiety and the climate crisis before those topics were mainstream. I Eat the Stars was serialised on Wilson’s Substack newsletter before being published by Penguin.

It is an intensely sobering read, seeming to confirm all our worst fears about the future. But it also delivers clarity. Yes, things are that bad, but there is still plenty to fight for and much we can shape – if we are willing to confront reality.