What an intriguing premise: Bayla has an out-of-body experience connected to her birthplace in India and to a test by an agrochemical company. Bayla’s that connected to the land and the to earth, partly through a network of people with a similar ability to reach out across the world on a spiritual plane—perhaps on a quantum level, now that we have those concepts to explain it all.

It’s a very engaging tale as she travels back to her homeland and reconnects with family, in the process resolving a deep, longstanding emotional wound and question: why her father abandoned her as a child. The trip also turns out to be fraught with danger: Zed, the billionaire owner of the agrochemical corp, is monomaniacally set on vengeance for a death in the past, and also turns out to be less-than-ethical when it comes to his methods for solving world food production.

So many cool ideas, and generally so well-written. The story, however, did get lost in the weeds sometimes, mostly in trying to explain spiritual goings-on (like how 108, the book’s title, is a kind of mystical thing), but also in trying to tie up loose ends towards the end of the book. There’s a weirdly executed love story, and one that’s suggested but never really completed. Zed is a strange figure, almost a caricature of a capitalist with an axe to grind. But like I say, there are many cool ideas in here; also many lush and vivid descriptions of place, and some genuinely touching human connections.

I like the uniqueness of this story in offering a wholly different way of saving the planet, rooted in a non-Western worldview, and how it drives home the idea that capitalism is violence. Earth and nature are considered, as in many non-Western traditions, partners to humans, and humans stewards. Animals are co-inhabitants of our biosphere. It’s refreshing to read an ecology-focused thriller that considers more-than-human perspectives, and *108* left me thoughtful. I’m really glad I read it.

Thanks to Girl Friday Productions and NetGalley for early DRC access.