How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel by Sequoia Nagamatsu is a science fiction book, with elements of dystopian fiction, that falls into the category of speculative fiction. Written predominantly in the first-person point of view, it follows a series of characters after a deadly pathogen enters groundwater because of global warming. Beginning with a scientist at the plague site and ending with an intergalactic being who’s responsible for creating Earth, the novel explores grief, love, and community in the face of global catastrophe. Originally published in January 2022, the novel is a New York Times bestseller and has been shortlisted for the Waterstone Debut Fiction Prize, the Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Prize, and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize.

This guide uses the first US edition of the book.

Content Warning: How High We Go in the Dark contains descriptions of illnesses, deaths, and death by suicide, and its exploration of funerary practices may be disturbing to readers. Additionally, the novel’s events center on a global virus, which may be harmful to those experiencing post-traumatic stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plot Summary

How High We Go in the Dark is a chronological story collection tracing the progression of a global pandemic. While it contains many recurring characters and references, most of the stories can stand alone.

In Chapter 1, “30,000 Years Beneath a Eulogy,” Cliff Miyashiro travels to Siberia after the death of his daughter, Clara, to take her place on a research team at a new archeological dig site. The site contains a humanoid girl’s body that could revolutionize understanding of prehistoric humans, as well as a virus that scientists have reanimated to study its behavior before it reaches the public through melting permafrost. Cliff studies Annie, the Neanderthal child, and reads Clara’s journals. The research and her inner thoughts help him reconcile his feelings about his daughter, her abandonment of her child, and her devotion to her work. Several weeks pass, and the virus appears hundreds of miles away. In the compound, the scientists begin to exhibit symptoms.

Several years pass. In Chapter 2, “The City of Laughter,” Skip takes a job as an attendant at a euthanasia park where children infected by a terminal virus dubbed the Artic plague go to die. There, he falls in love with Dorrie, the mother of a terminally ill child enrolled in drug trials. When the child’s condition continues to worsen, the three spend one last day together in the park.

In Chapter 3, “Through the Garden of Memory,” Jun is among the first adults to contract the Artic plague. He enters a coma and awakens in a black space filled with many other comatose people. They find globes of light filled with their memories and learn about each other and themselves. Discovering a baby in their midst, they build a giant human pyramid until gravity lessens, and Jun releases the baby into the air, hoping to save it. Chapter 4, “Pig Son,” follows David, Dorrie’s ex-husband, as he grows artificial human organs in pigs for transplant to the ill. One pig gains sentience and learns to talk. David bonds with the pig, but word gets out about its intelligence. David and his companions receive a directive to send the pig to a government agency for testing but realize that its brain is growing so quickly that it’s dying. After they give the pig one night of freedom, it asks them to harvest its organs to save lives after its death.

In Chapter 5, “Elegy Hotel,” Dennis manages a hotel where people grieve their loved ones in an extended visitation ceremony. His brother, Bryan, asks him to move home and help their mother, who’s dying of cancer. Dennis is indecisive despite pressure from his brother and his friend Val. His traumatic past with his family, especially his late father, prevents him from reaching out. While he’s trying to decide, his mother dies. Dennis gives his family the presidential suite at the hotel, saying farewell to his mother one last time. Chapter 6, “Speak, Fetch, Say I Love You,” shares similar themes of mourning as an unnamed narrator (and his son, Aki) grapple with the death of his wife. He runs a robo-dog repair company that is running out of usable parts, foreshadowing the eventual end of his wife’s robo-dog, Hollywood. He and his son strive to repair their fraught relationship through their robo-dog and mutual love for their departed loved ones.

Time skips forward several more years in Chapter 7, “Songs of Your Decay,” which focuses on Aubrey, a forensic specialist who works at a body farm, monitoring the decomposing bodies of those who died of the plague to record vital information. Laird, a terminal patient, has decided to donate his body to the farm to help find a cure. During the year before his death, she bonds with him and questions her relationship with her husband. Shortly before Laird dies, she realizes that she’s in love with him and falls into a deep state of mourning, writing him letters as she tries to process her grief and the inevitability of her divorce.

In Chapter 8, “Life Around the Event Horizon,” Bryan and his wife, Theresa, are scientists trying to develop more effective space travel to enable the colonization of other planets. They debate whether to leave Earth if their research proves successful; Bryan increasingly fears the future and longs for the past. Several years later, in Chapter 9, “A Gallery A Century, A Cry A Millennium,” Miki and Yumi, the wife and granddaughter of Cliff Miyashiro from Chapter 1, are aboard the USS Yamato. Bryan and Theresa’s research succeeded, and Yumi is placed in cryogenic sleep. Miki sleeps periodically and paints murals inside the spaceship with Dorrie, the mother from Chapter 2. Miki writes to her loved ones, exploring grief and adventure. Decades pass on Earth, heralding news of a cure and efforts to reverse climate change. After 6,000 years, the crew discovers a habitable planet and begins colonization.

In Chapter 10, “The Used-To-Be Party,” Dan Paul has recently awakened from a plague-related coma. Via email, he invites his neighbors to a barbeque and encourages community healing. Chapter 11, “Melancholy Nights in a Tokyo Virtual Reality Café,” explores loneliness in the post-plague era as Akira, a man in his thirties without a home or a job, struggles to find meaning in life. In virtual reality, he bonds with Yoshiko, whose daughter has long-term plague symptoms. Akira finds a job printing pamphlets for Yoshiko’s father and asks to meet her in real life. However, her hardships and loneliness lead her to murder her daughter and then die by suicide. Akira visits their grave, resolving to call his mother to ask for help.

In Chapter 12, “Before You Melt into the Sea,” an unnamed sculptor helps a young woman named Mabel design an ice sculpture that he’ll later make from her remains. She survived the plague but is dying of cancer caused by the virus. Ice sculpture burials are among many new funerary practices that developed after the plague. Over the years, the sculptor falls in love with Mabel, who doesn’t return his affection. After she dies, he turns her remains into a boat, and her loved ones celebrate her. The sculptor pulls her into the ocean and holds her until she melts. Funerary practices reappear in Chapter 13, “Grave Friends,” as Rina returns to Japan to attend her grandmother’s memorial. Her grandmother’s ashes will join others of her neighbors in a communal urn. Rina struggles to connect to her mother since moving to the US. Her pregnancy complicates her relationships, which highlights her dedication to remaining in the US and away from home. At the memorial, Rina and her mother reconcile, and Rina’s father helps her realize how much she’s loved. The story’s end foreshadows that Rina fully reconciles with her community, splitting her time between the US and Japan.

Chapter 14, “The Scope of Possibility,” describes the world builders, an alien race responsible for developing advanced civilizations. The narrator is the one responsible for Earth. She bids farewell to her daughter and husband, joining Earth at its inception, and reincarnates as different people and animals throughout history, including as Annie’s mother. Because of her alien genetics, she inadvertently creates the mutations that cause Annie to have an abnormal genetic profile—and the virus that kills her. After a series of experiences in different periods, she reincarnates as Clara to try to solve the climate problem before the virus is released and then as Theresa to solve space travel and ensure human survival. At the end of the chapter, she talks to Bryan on his deathbed, telling him the truth of her nature and her wish to reconcile with her daughter.

On the novel’s last page, the commander of the USS Yamato sends a message to Earth, detailing their discoveries. He asks for a response before noting his retirement.