The Surge of Pandemic Novels

The past few years of our lives have been inundated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Who would have thought that an invisible enemy is enough to put the world to a screeching halt? It started in the most innocuous of manners. It went undetected and before we know it, it has spread to different parts of the world. We were initially skeptical about it. Most of us thought it would be over as soon as it started. The spread of most of the recent viral diseases, such as the SARS-COV, the avian flu, and even the feared ebola virus, were mitigated at the onset. Some of us were even complacent. But then the unthinkable happened. The virus started spreading at a breakneck speed, prompting governments across the world to close their borders and limiting the mobility of its denizens. Lockdowns have become prevalent.

More than three years later, the world has finally coped. The development of vaccines greatly helped put the situation under control. With trade and borders opening up, economies are now slowly recovering from the slump caused by the pandemic. Mobility is returning to normal. Malls, restaurants, and tourist destinations that were akin to ghost towns during the height of the global health crisis are now again teeming with activities, with life. Flights and tourism figures are returning to pre-pandemic numbers. Vestiges of the pandemic are still palpable – the use of face masks is still prevalent – reminding us of our plight in the past three years. Nevertheless, we can now breathe easier than we did in 2020 and 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic, like most seminal historical events, has become a well of material for writers. Previous global health crises like the Spanish flu and the bubonic plague have also been the fabric upon which many literary works were drawn. Isabel Allende’s 2022 novel Violeta was bookended by two pandemics; it commenced with the Spanish flu and ended with the COVID-19 pandemic. Louise Erdrich’s latest novel, The Sentence (2022), was also set during the pandemic and explored several subjects attached to it. While Violeta was steeped in history, Hanya Yanagihara’s most recent novel, To Paradise, looks further into the future. Her dystopian tale painted a grim picture of a world slowly being debilitated by pathogens.

“Maybe I should have stayed longer, explained better. But all I can do right now is remain here, so very far from where I want to be. Maybe it’ll all be worth it one day. Maybe it won’t, and we’ll have lost all this time (and your grandfather will have been right). But know that what I’m doing here is trying to give you a future filled with light.”

~ Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark

Adding his voice to the growing list of COVID-19 pandemic literature was novelist and short story writer Sequoia Nagamatsu. In 2022, he published his first novel How High We Go in the Dark; he made his literary debut in 2016 with his short story collection, Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone. At the crux of How High We Go in the Dark was a plague, reminiscent of the pandemic that caught us off guard. However, Nagamatsu ditched traditional storytelling norms in writing his novel. Rather than a straightforward narrative, he wove together a collection of interrelated stories that charted the progression of a global pandemic; it was not necessarily the COVID-19 pandemic but there were several parallels.

The first chapter titled 30,000 Years Beneath a Eulogy conveyed the provenance of Nagamatsu’s plaque; the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the virus that caused it mirrored that of the COVID-19 virus. Following the untimely demise of his daughter Clara, Dr. Cliff Miyashiro headed to the remote parts of Siberia’s Altai mountains to pursue the research previously spearheaded by Clara. Her research involved a new archeological dig site where the preserved remains of a female Neanderthal were discovered. The researchers named her Annie. Compared to earlier discoveries, Annie’s body was fully intact, preserved by the permafrost that blanketed it for millennia. With the advent of global warming, a growing global concern, Annie was thawed from her perpetual mummification.

To the scientific community, Annie’s discovery was a breakthrough as her well-preserved remains would greatly help understand prehistoric humans. As marvelous as this discovery was, there were unforeseen circumstances that the scientists did not take into consideration when they extracted Annie and started studying her. Tucked in Annie’s brain was a previously unidentified pathogen. By opening up Annie’s body, the scientists reactivated and unleashed a virulent pathogen. The research facility was immediately put into quarantine to stymie the spread of the unnamed pathogen. They were able to control it, at first. As history has shown, even strongholds are not as strong as they are. Breaches are inevitable and in the case of the unnamed pathogen, a sequence of biosecurity breaches proved fatal and costly.

Nagamatsu’s fictional pathogen, fittingly called the Arctic Plague, had very severe effects on the body of those who contracted it. The Arctic Plague causes the cells in the body to transform beyond one’s imagination. It can cause the heart, for instance, to transform into liver cells. It was a pathogen everyone was better off not coming into contact with. But alas, the virus has spread like wildfire all over the world. Everyone has become vulnerable. No one was safe from the virulence of the pathogen. The Plague did not recognize age, color, race, body build, or gender. What ensued were scenes familiar to what most of us have witnessed following the worldwide lockdown. Nagamatsu, however, does not fill the readers with these images.

“I walk the mile to the crater’s edge. I imagine the virus and anything else the ice has kept hidden from us being sucked into the figurine, its stone belly filled with all that can harm us. I tell my daughter I love her and throw the dogū into the crater, waiting for all that has been unburied to be retaken into the earth. I walk back to the outpost. I can barely breathe.”

~ Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark

With a stroke of brilliance, Nagamatsu allowed the readers the freedom to fill in the blanks as he jetted the story forward into the future. Years have transpired between the first and second chapters. New characters were introduced but one thing was everpresent: the Arctic plague. The pandemic still loomed above the lives of everyone. As we have witnessed in the past three years, with every scientific response – mass vaccination or not – the virus somehow kept on mutating; there seems to be no end to this. People across the world have become attuned to the pandemic’s presence. New normals have taken precedence as everyone coped with it. They built their new realities around the pathogen’s presence.

Despite all of the time skips and the introduction of new characters, Nagamatsu never lost his narrative focus; he took on a straight course. Nagamatsu took the readers across time through several interrelated stories. We read about a male drifter who worked for a theme park catering to terminally ill kids. It was no ordinary theme park as it observed euthanasia. The innocent children were taken on a roller coaster that will plunge them to death, thus sparing them from the plague. We also read about a father who repaired plastic pet dogs as they have become the alternatives for man’s best friend; and about a forensic pathologist who studied dead bodies in order to help prevent further death. Meanwhile, David, the focus of the book’s fourth chapter titled Pig Son, experimented on pigs. He grew artificial human organs in pigs; these organs will be used by sick humans. One pig, however, gained awareness and was even able to learn to speak.

In all of these different riveting scenarios conjured by Nagamatsu, there was one overriding subject: death. With humanity descending into chaos because of the pandemic and global warming – this was another subject that was prominently underscored in the story – death has become ubiquitous and prevalent. Indeed, the single most pervasive element of the novel was death. It has long been an inevitable element of our mortality but Nagamatsu accelerated death. Children die from the plague or on roller coasters. Their parents are also not safe from different maladies that keep on hounding humanity. Some people commit ritual suicide to escape the bleak realities. Animals also meet their inevitable death. Even plastic toys expire at a certain point.

With an unflinching gaze, Nagamatsu did not spare readers from the grimness and bleakness of death. It loomed and hovered above the story. This was exacerbated by growing feelings of isolation and helplessness. But despite the pandemic and other growing global concerns, hope still beaconed. Humanity has not relented from searching for solutions that will preserve the human species. It is in the face of such crises that human resolve is tested; there is hope after all. The novel’s long timeline further underscored the tenacity of the human spirit. Survivalism is the name of the game.

“I was never one to connect. I’ve been that way my entire life. I went to work, kept my head down, and came home. I let old friendships fizzle. I orbited my family and all of you like a distant planet -there and yet nearly impossible to reach. I know I can’t survive alone.”

~ Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark

In his debut novel, Nagamatsu contrasted death with the presence of capitalism. While ordinary citizens cope with death, commerce continues to thrive. There are still human beings whose moral compass is comprised of money, even if it is attached to something as dreary as death. Why not? Death is inevitable. Commodities were created to accommodate the offshoots of death. This commercialization of death was captured through the growing prevalence of euthanasia theme parks, elegy hotels, and human remains preserved within the plastic carcasses of robot dogs. In one instance, a father opted to buy flowers from street vendors rather than from a train station dedicated to selling flowers for those who are visiting the departed.

Without a doubt, How High We Go in the Dark is an ambitious undertaking. The novel’s various elements were carefully and astutely woven together by Nagamatsu’s dexterous hands. Despite the novel’s structure, it did not come across as fragmented; the structure could have easily undermined the story. However, the story was prone to repetitions. Interestingly, Nagamatsu started working on the novel way back in 2011. Who would have thought that his vision would eventually turn into reality? Such foresight. His vision of the future was bleak but he managed to strike a balance as there were thoughtful explorations on how survivors process death and grief.

How High We Go in the Dark has earned Nagamatsu several accolades, fittingly so. It was shortlisted for the Waterstone Debut Fiction Prize, the Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Prize, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. In this dark but timely tale, Nagamatsu vividly captured our plight in the past three years even though the place it came from was far detached from our predicament. Art imitates life, they say, but in this ambitious undertaking, it was the other way around. Despite the bleakness of the subjects it covered, the novel was still brimming with hopeful messages. The human spirit remains alive even when air wafted with the smell of death. As we have witnessed during the height of the pandemic, we are resilient, we are tenacious, and we are resourceful.

Ratings

77%

Characters (30%) – 24%
Plot (30%) – 21%
Writing (25%) – 20%
Overall Impact (15%) – 12%

It was while searching for books to include on my 2022 Top 10 Books I Look Forward To List that I first encountered Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark. The book was featured in several most-anticipated 2022 books list. It made it easier for me as I was immediately convinced to include the book on my own list. The book’s title and cover further reeled me in. I guess I can say I was lucky for I was able to immediately snag a copy of the book although it did take me some time to finally read the book, making it a part of my September 2022 foray into American literature. It was overall, an interesting book. I was initially taken aback by the structure but I was able to recover myself. Once I did, the story started to unfold. For a deceptively slim novel, How High We Go in the Dark unpacked a lot as it also explored the adverse impact of climate change.

Book Specs

Author: Sequoia Nagamatsu
Publisher: William Morrow
Publishing Date: 2022
Number of Pages: 289
Genre: Speculative, Literary

Synopsis

For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, a spellbinding and profoundly prescient debut that follows a cast of intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague – a daring and deeply heartfelt work of mind-bending imagination from a singular new voice.

In 2030, a grieving archaeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus.

Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects – a pig – develops the capacity for human speech. A widowed painter and her teenage granddaughter embark on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to the interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resilience of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.

About the Author

Sequoia Nagamatsu was born on January 19, 1982, in the United States. He was raised in Oahu and San Francisco. He attended Pinewood School, a private high school in Los Altos Hills. It was at Pinewood that his love of creative writing began. Nagamatsu attended Grinnell College in Iowa, completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Southern Illinois University. He has Japanese roots. For two years, he lived in Niigata City, Japan prior to attending graduate school.

Nagamatsu’s short stories have appeared in publications such as Conjunctions, The Southern Review, ZYZZYVA, Tin House, Iowa Review, Lightspeed Magazine, and One World: A Global Anthology of Short Stories. His works were also listed as notable in Best American Non-Required Reading and Best Horror of the Year. In 2016, he published his first book, Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone, a collection of short stories. It was warmly received by critics and even earned Nagamatsu several accolades such as the 2016 Foreword Reviews Indie Book of the Year Silver Medal winner: Short Stories (Adult Fiction).

In 2022, Nagamatsu published his first novel, How High We Go in the Dark. It was a book he started working on in 2011. Like his short story collection, his first novel was warmly received. It was shortlisted for the Waterstone Debut Fiction Prize, the Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Prize, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. It was also a New York Times Bestseller. Apart from writing, he previously co-edited Psychopomp Magazine, an online quarterly dedicated to innovative prose. He also taught at the College of Idaho, Southern Illinois University, and the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. He also joined the faculty of the Rainier Writers Workshop, a low-residence MFA Program at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.

Nagamatsu is an associate professor of English at St. Olaf College. He teaches first-year writing and creative writing courses. He is currently residing in Minneapolis with his wife, the writer Cole Nagamatsu, a cat named Kalahira, a dog named Fenris, and a robot dog named Calvino.