World's End

Published in 1987, "World's End" is a historical fiction novel set primarily in New York’s Hudson River Valley, moving non‑chronologically between the late seventeenth century, the anti‑communist unrest of the 1940s, and the counterculture 1960s.

At its center is Walter Van Brunt, a drifting young man haunted by his family’s traitorous legacy, numbed by pot, cheap wine, and sex, and increasingly disturbed by encounters with figures from the past, which propel him on a search for his missing father.

The novel traces the intertwined destinies of three groups—the powerful Dutch landowning Van Warts, the Mohonk (Kitchawank) people, and the Van Brunt tenant farmers—exploring how betrayal, violence, and class injustice echo across generations.

Blending elements of magic, fable, and dark satire with vividly evoked landscape and meticulously researched history, Boyle dismantles romanticized visions of early America and shows how the past relentlessly shapes personal fate and social conflict.