How High We Go in the Dark is a pandemic influenced novel (although I did read that Nagamatsu wrote a few chapters prior to the world-wide Covid pandemic). It is also a lightly science fiction novel. I say lightly because most of the chapters envision a ‘near future’ but there are a few that fully qualify as science fiction. Don’t let the science fiction category scare you away from this novel.
The novel begins in 2030 when a virus is released from an Arctic dig site. The new virus infects the researchers at the site and eventually spreads across the world. The details of how the virus spread and its impact on populations are not revealed. Each chapter moves the narrative (and time) forward by sharing the stories of individuals in the Arctic plague world.
It begins with the archeologist father traveling to the Arctic to understand what killed his daughter, who was part of the Arctic research team. Not a spoiler but here is where the Artic plague is let loose. The traumatic impact of massive deaths caused by the Arctic plague reshapes how the world manages death and the premature loss of loved ones. Chapters reveal a theme park for terminally ill children; ‘hotels’ that serve as vertical cemeteries with elaborate ways to honor & remember the dead; scientists desperate to find a cure or vaccine; and a spaceship with what might be the last humans in search of a new home.
How High We Go in the Dark is a difficult book to explain. It sounds dark (and parts certainly are) but it isn’t. It is more a creative, thoughtful way to articulate alternative ways of experiencing dying, grieving, and remembering loved ones. Funeral practices have varied across religions & cultures for millennia. Nagamatsu presents us with some ideas for the future.
A truly unique novel, Nagamatsu envisions a world dealing with massive death and how we might create new ways of coping with so many people dying prematurely. But love is a thread woven through each chapter. Not just love as reflected at the end of life, but how love survives across generations, in horrific situations and surrounded by certain death. Love triumphs always.
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