First published 2004
Adam Ewing travels across the Pacific in 1850, keeping a journal that will survive him by centuries. His story nests inside others: a young composer in 1930s Belgium, a journalist uncovering corporate corruption in 1970s California, a publisher trapped in a nursing home in modern England, a fabricant clone rebelling in futuristic Korea, and a goat herder in a primitive post-collapse Hawaii. Each narrator discovers a fragment of the previous story, creating a structure that folds back on itself. The characters face similar struggles across time: the powerful exploiting the weak, individuals fighting systems that would crush them, and souls seeking connection across the void. Their fates interweave as each story reveals how human nature repeats itself through the ages, whether in slavery, corporate malfeasance, or genetic manipulation. Mitchell shows how courage and compassion persist even as civilizations rise and fall.
Genres: dystopia, adventure, 21st-century, alternate-history
Vibes: lyrical, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, interconnected-stories, nested-narratives
Setting: Pacific Ocean, Belgium, California, England, Korea, Hawaii
Period: 1850, 1930s, 1970s, Modern, Post-Collapse
443 pages · Kindle Edition · Random House Trade Paperbacks
Content warnings: violence