First published 2026
Biologist Laurel Salter washes dishes ten hours a day at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. She tells no one she was once a renowned scientist with a husband and family. Laurel has fled to this frozen outpost to escape her past, but isolation cannot protect her forever. A strange light appears across the ice, drawing physicists to the research base. Among them will be Eli, her former husband. Laurel becomes obsessed with the Arc and its surreal glow that seems almost alive. She develops a wild theory about where this phenomenon leads. Though Eli resists her ideas, Laurel believes the Arc opens a passage to another world they can barely imagine. She must convince him to risk everything and follow her down this rabbit hole. The stakes are personal: can they fix what broke between them and somehow turn back time to live their story again?
Genres: science-fiction, literary-fiction, speculative-fiction, contemporary, adult-fiction, mystery-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, haunting, introspective, mysterious, thought-provoking
Tropes: forced-proximity, mysterious-phenomenon, second-chance-romance
Setting: McMurdo Station, Antarctica
720 pages · Paperback · Random House Large Print