This is climate fiction at its most introspective

Stranded in Antarctica, a biologist grapples with his toxic morality

I didn’t want to be another person just turning away from it. Another person keeping a dog but eating a lamb. Another person with a recycling bin and a brand-new car. Another person creating another person to look just like them when so many were already alive and starving.

A quick review for a quick read. I tore through this very tense, very dense little book about two scientists, alone in Antarctica, grappling with climate change, mysterious enemies, and their own moral convictions. The narrator is endlessly complex and desperately needs a therapist. Trapped in a cabin in a secret location at the end of the world, his ego’s highly rational ideals go head-to-head with his very human desire for love and companionship. Lee’s writing hits all the right notes — crisp, poetic, and powerful.

What did it mean for a man to be opposed to the conditions necessary for his own survival? Was man so truly apart from the rest of nature that some destruction, some damage, could not be forgiven?