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How High We Go in the Dark

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How High We Go in the Dark

By: Sequoia Nagamatsu
Narrated by: Jason Culp, Stephanie Komure, Micky Shiloah, Joe Knezevich, Brianna Ishibashi, Kotaro Watanabe, Matthew Bridges, Kurt Kanazawa, Greg Watanabe, Jeanne Sakata, MacLeod Andrews, Keisuke Hoashi, Brian Nishii, Julia Whelan
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About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, read by Jason Culp, Stephanie Komure, Micky Shiloah, Joe Knezevich, Brianna Ishibashi, Kotaro Watanabe, Matthew Bridges, Kurt Kanazawa, Greg Watanabe, Jeanne Sakata, MacLeod Andrews, Keisuke Hoashi, Brian Nishii and Julia Whelan.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2022
FINALIST FOR THE BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE 2022
FINALIST FOR THE URSULA LE GUIN PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022
WATERSTONES AND ESQUIRE BEST BOOKS OF 2022

For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, Sequoia Nagamatsu's debut is a wildly imaginative, genre-bending work spanning generations across the globe as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague.

‘Haunting and luminous … An astonishing debut’ – Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta

'A powerfully moving and thought provoking read. At times sublime, strange and deeply human' Adrian Tchaikovsky, bestselling author of the Children of Time series

Dr. Cliff Miyashiro arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue his recently deceased daughter’s research, only to discover a virus, newly unearthed from melting permafrost. The plague unleashed reshapes life on earth for generations. Yet even while struggling to counter this destructive force, humanity stubbornly persists in myriad moving and ever inventive ways.

Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention.

Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible. [How High We Go in the Dark] reaches far beyond our stars while its heart remains rooted to Earth, and reminds us that our wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of our world – Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree©2022 Sequoia Nagamatsu (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Heartfelt Funny
All stars
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I loved the first few chapters. I enjoyed piecing together all the stories but I felt like it never really ended up going anywhere to make it worth it.

Great start but lost me by the end

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Thoroughly enjoyed the storyline and performances. If you enjoy futuristic or dystopian stories this should be a good listen for you.

A wonderful thought provoking story

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This is right up there with my favourite of all time. It is haunting, imaginative and beautiful all at the same time.
If I could give it more stars I would.

Stunning

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This is the best book I've encountered in a very long time.
The story follows the human experience after the release of a lethal virus from Arctic permafrost, following its ongoing impact from the first few years to the subsequent millenia.
The stories are heartbreaking, funny and beautiful.
I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Just fantastic!

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Each chapter is like a short story based in a future world. They relate I terms of character connections but they feel very separate and so I found it hard to believe the direction the story went in.

A collection of short stories

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**spoiler alert** I loved this book. I went into it knowing very little, having got it off a 'books to look out for in 2022' list on GoodReads. It was harrowing and hit close to home reading it during a pandemic of our own, and I can't describe how emotional some of the chapters made. I cried a fair few times throughout it, but the chapter that got me the most was that of Fitch and the Oasis Coaster.

I struggled initially with the final chapter as I'm not a huge fan of using aliens as an explanation for the plot, but once the author started weaving that into all of the previously told stories it made me really in awe of how throughout and intricate the storytelling is.

This is a type of book I have never found anywhere else. It was a beautiful deep dive into grief, death, community and love and I am so pleasantly surprised and happy I stumbled across it.

Heartfelt, Intricate, and Humanizing

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I did love this but it was tricky to follow and at times a bit dry. I think it's almost like reading a non fiction, so I'd have to read again.

very intriguing

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I was very confused for most of this book, but the ending was Fantastic. It was very interesting

Not a bad read

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Super random and weird book. Not enough "science" behind it. The narration was ok.

I was just able to get through it

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I thoroughly enjoyed the interwoven stories and noticing the connections, it was all beautiful written and I thought it was excellent having a different narrator for each story. There were a few narrators I found hard to understand, but that is my issue, they all did a fantastic job.
Wonderful reintroduction to my favourite genre!

Thoroughly enjoyed

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