How do you imagine the unimaginable? How do you write about it? That’s the task investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen sets for herself in Nuclear War: A Scenario, her hypothetical account of nuclear warfare and the end of the world as we know it.

Following North Korea’s latest test of a nuclear device on Feb. 12, protestors gathered in a public park in the southern Chinese province of Guangzhou. While most were there to voice frustration over the North’s intransigence, many also denounced Beijing’s inability to control its recalcitrant ally. According to reports, similar scenes played out across the country, a growing public chorus that echoes international frustration over North Korea.