by Don DeLillo
First published 2016
Jeffrey Lockhart travels to a remote compound where his billionaire father Ross has invested millions in a radical experiment. Ross's younger wife Artis Martineau is dying, and she plans to surrender her body to cryogenic preservation. The facility promises to revive the preserved dead when future technology makes transcendent life possible. Jeffrey comes to say goodbye to Artis, but he discovers his father also wants to enter this suspended state. Ross believes humans should control their own death rather than accept their fate. Jeffrey disagrees completely. He narrates his time at the compound, where he watches Artis prepare for preservation and confronts his father's obsession with escaping mortality. Jeffrey remains committed to living in the present world, with all its disasters and beauty. The story explores whether choosing death and potential rebirth represents human glory or a rejection of life's immediate wonders.
Genres: science-fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: father-son-relationship, philosophical-questions
Setting: Remote Compound
Period: 21st Century
274 pages · Hardcover · Scribner