A sharp allegorical novel about a hidden human civilization, a
crucial election, and a mysterious invisible force that must not be
named, by one of our most imaginative comic novelists
LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE
YEAR: The Washington Post
When sociologist Nalini Jackson joins the SS Delany for the first
manned mission to Jupiter, all she wants is a career opportunity: the
chance to conduct the first field study of group dynamics on long-haul
cryoships. But what she discovers instead is an entire city encased in a
bubble on Europa, Jupiter's largest moon.
Even more unexpected, Nalini and the rest of the crew soon find
themselves abducted and joining its captive population, forced to start
new lives in a place called New Roanoke.
New Roanoke is a city riven by wealth inequality and governed by a
feckless, predatory elite, its economy run on heedless consumption and
income inequality. But in other ways it's different from the cities we
already know: it's covered by an enormous dome, it's populated by alien
abductees, and it happens to be terrorized by an invisible entity so
disturbing that no one even dares acknowledge its existence.
Albuquerque chauffer Chase Eubanks is pretty darn sure aliens stole his
wife. People mock him for saying that, but he doesn't care who knows it.
So when his philanthropist boss funds a top-secret rescue mission to
save New Roanoke's abductees, Chase jumps at the chance to find her. The
plan: Get the astronauts out and provide the population with the tech
they need to escape this alien world. The reality: Nothing is ever
simple when dealing with the complex, contradictory, and contrarian
impulses of everyday earthlings.
This is a madcap, surreal adventure into a Jovian mirror world, one
grappling with the same polarized politics, existential crises, and mass
denialism that obsess and divide our own. Will New Roanoke survive? Will
we?
