How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

We all, unfortunately, have a general idea of how a pandemic can change the world.  But what if a global plague so deadly spread throughout the world that tens of millions of people perished, a significant portion of them children, and almost every single person left on the planet has lost a loved one. That is not a very encouraging event to ponder, but that is what is explored in How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. It’s the year 2030, and due to climate changes melting significant portions of permafrost, an ancient disease has been released that the world is not equipped to handle. 

While the main event of the book is this pandemic, the dominant focus is on the characters themselves, how their lives are changed, how they cope with loss, how they fight to find anything about this disease that can lead to a cure, or, on the other hand, how people make a profit off the booming funeral and grief industry. This book is unique in that each chapter is essentially its own short story following a different set of characters. The first being that of a scientist who puts himself at risk visiting the site where his late daughter, also a scientist, discovered the frozen body of a 30,000 year old girl carrying the ancient disease that was released. Each story after that takes you further away from that initial moment, but there are connections and crossovers between many of the stories if you pay close attention. Sequoia’s writing is at times very realistic but other times completely imaginative, like the chapter about the scientist who gets to be a father again, when his test subject, a pig made to grow organs for human transplant, develops the capacity for speech and human emotion. 

As you might tell, How High We Go in the Dark is very immersive. If you like books that are also philosophical and make you think and question things, this would be a good pick. If you enjoy this read, it’s worth checking out these other post-pandemic stories: Sea of Tranquility and Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel.