"Haunting and luminous . . . Beautiful and lucid science
fiction. An astonishing debut." — Alan Moore, creator of
Watchmen and V
for Vendetta
For fans of Cloud Atlas
and Station Eleven, a
spellbinding and profoundly prescient debut that follows a cast of
intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity
struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague—a
daring and deeply heartfelt work of mind-bending imagination from a
singular new voice.
In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to
continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika
Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now
revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved
remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus.
Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for
generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity
to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace
possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for
terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a
mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken
scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood
when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops the capacity for
human speech. A widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter embark
on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar
starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and
compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even
celestial bodies to tell a story about the resilience of the human
spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads
that tie us all together in the universe.
"Wondrous, and not just in the feats of imagination, which are
so numerous it makes me dizzy to recall them, but also in the
humanity and tenderness with which Sequoia Nagamatsu helps us
navigate this landscape. . . . This is a truly amazing book, one to
keep close as we imagine the uncertain future." — Kevin
Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here