Venice-based writer Alistair McCartney celebrates the publication of his debut novel tonight with a reading, accompanied by a quasi-slide show that depicts his life and travels. It's the perfect backdrop for the work itself, entitled The End of the World Book, which knots disparate threads, from gay culture to European film to ancient myth to science fiction, into a glossary of life experience (organized alphabetically, of course). With surrealist showmanship and literary swagger, McCartney uses the prism of the self to recontextualize contemporary culture's relationship to history.