Once a proud math teacher, Edgar Hopkins has retired to poultry-breeding contests and communications with the British Lunar Society. He thus becomes one of the first to learn that the moon is on a collision course with the earth. There is nothing to be done, and humanity would only panic, so members of the society are sworn to secrecy, until the moon looms so large in the sky that the truth is plain. During these final days, Edgar writes what he calls "The Hopkins Manuscript," a testimony juxtaposing the ordinary and extraordinary as the villagers dig trenches and play cricket before the end of days. First published in 1939, with the world on the brink of war, R.C. Sherriff's classic science fiction novel captures human nature in all its complexity.

"Masterfully captures the way the graspable and mundane can overpower the incomprehensibility of existential threat. Though written more than 75 years ago about a world without internet or television, The Hopkins Manuscript manages to feel entirely contemporary."—Booklist (starred review)