Having followed the brilliant virologist Régnier from Montreal to
Marseille many years ago, Sadie now works as a researcher in a lab,
spending most of her time among microscopic creatures who teach her
about life as a parasite. By day, she pushes the limits of her
understanding alongside Régnier, who taught her that to study viruses,
she must think infectiously, allow herself to be contaminated by
dangerous ideas. By night, Sadie loses herself in bars, music, drugs,
sensuality. Until she gets a call from the past that lures her back
across the Atlantic.
When her estranged father tells her that a bizarre virus has been found
in his hospital, Sadie returns to Montreal and her family, and all the
unexpected changes time has wrought, to solve this new puzzle. Soon she
realizes that the person she thought she was--someone who can leave
everything behind--no longer exists. What is left for her instead is
sinking into the unknown to find out what happens when ideas come to
life.
This is a deeply inventive and singular novel about the power of
metamorphosis and symbiosis. Combining the cerebral and the sensual,
Sadie X explores humanity's relationship to the rest of the world, and
the role of rationale--and its limits in our multilayered, regenerative
existences.
