New York Times Editors' Choice 2022
An NPR Books We Love 2022
Shortlisted for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction
Longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award
Finalist for the Lambda Award in Bisexual Fiction

"A spellbinding book." —Megha Majumdar

"Akil Kumarasamy is a singular talent." —Cathy Park Hong

In the near future, a young woman finds her mother’s body starfished on the kitchen floor in Queens and sets on a journey through language, archives, artificial intelligence, and TV for a way back into herself. She begins to translate an old manuscript about a group of female medical students—living through a drought and at the edge of the war—as they create a new way of existence to help the people around them. In the process, the translator’s life and the manuscript begin to become entangled.

Along the way, the arrival of a childhood friend, a stranger, and an unusual AI project will force her to question her own moral compass and sense of goodness. How involved are we in the suffering of others? What does real compassion look like? How do you make a better world?