Scribner UK

Book title: Since the World is Ending by Indyana Schneider

Reviewer: Sarah Cupitt 

Since the World is Ending is a visceral translation for the architecture of feeling.

I have never been seduced by a book before, and I devoured its entirety within a day because of its inherent pace and the urgent pull of its prose. ‘Since The World Is Ending’ inhabits a sustained emotional chord that manages to articulate the unspoken language of the heart with an absolutely brilliant clarity and force. This is a book that demands attention, insisting on being felt as much as it is read.

Maya’s night and day create a rhythm that frequently mimics a musical score, employing cadence and dissonance to amplify the emotional stakes of her life pulled between old memories and a new life in Vienna, stuck between music, consequence, and desire. The core of this story lies in its ability to connect with the reader on a plane of relatable emotion, entirely avoiding the traditional narrative need for shared lived experiences.

Whilst the narrative explores the Maya’s perspectives on relationships and life’s broader contours, the emotional architecture remains the foundational focus. It is in these moments of intense, shared vulnerability that I felt an intimacy rarely found in contemporary fiction.

The author constructs a language suspended in a fascinating triangulation between English, Deutsch, and the expressive idiom of music and prose operating with startling poetic precision.

The function of the prose is translation, not necessarily in the literal sense, but in the difficult and delicate work of transforming raw feeling into concrete syntax. It addresses those confusing, undescriptive emotions and intellectual notions that become stuck between languages.

A core motif running through the text is the relationship between Maya and her connection to music, particularly the violin, which provides the underlying pulse for the entire book, suggesting that all communication (whilst potentially flawed in judgment) finds itself in rhythm and tone.

I immensely enjoyed being invited to appreciate the spaces between the sentences, the unspoken moments of cultural and emotional translation, in the constraint and the breath, a meditation on love, loss, and belonging. Ending on a poetic front, I’m quite content that I emerged from finishing this book with a collection of paper cuts, some sort of physical evidence of the desperate speed with which I turned the pages.

Maya's story shows a simple, complicated truth that some loves never truly leave us. For me, ‘Since The World Is Ending’ offered a new means for understanding the intertwined dynamics of emotion, music, rhythm, and the indelible marks left by past loves. But just like music itself, everyone hears something different. For you? It might offer something entirely different, which is exactly why you should read it.

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Reviewer’s bio:

Sarah Cupitt is a poet and writer passionate about storytelling, heartfelt community projects, and the written word. Her work has earned her prestigious awards and over 50 published pieces. She can be found at local cafes plotting her debut romance thriller and devouring her next read to tick off her never-ending GoodReads TBR list. As an alumnus of the WestWords Academy, Sarah’s writing has been featured in publications such as The Fiji Times, The Junction, the NSW State Library, and ABC Radio Sydney’s The Diary Files. She frequently edits others' work, participates in writing competitions, and judges high school debates, as well as the Tournament of Minds.