The surprise fourth volume in Jeff VanderMeer’sSouthern Reachseries—& the final word…After a decade away,Jeff VanderMeeris heading back intoArea X. In 2014, the author released all three parts of theSouthern Reachtrilogyover the span of just a few months, & the series became a breakout hit; the first was even adapted into a Hollywood film from directorAlex Garland. Starting withAnnihilation& culminating withAcceptance, the books told the story of an abandoned coastal area that had become reclaimed — and forever changed — by a mysterious phenomenon known asArea X& the secret agency attempting to understand & contain it.The trilogy solidifiedVanderMeer’sparticular style of surreal sci-fi & environmental activism… But there were questions that always lingered afterAcceptance. And while he had been thinking about a potential newSouthern Reachbook since 2017, it wasn’t until 2023 that all of the pieces fell into place.That book would turn intoAbsolution, a prequel… It’s split into three parts & largely follows two characters from the original trilogy:Old Jim, a resident of the abandoned village in Area X, &Lowry, sole survivor of the first expedition into the phenomenon. The book is haunting, strange, & disturbingly funny (just wait until you meet the carnivorous rabbits)…“I was grappling at one point with how I would tell the story afterAcceptance. The solution in my subconscious wasAbsolution, which is something that’s both aprequeland, sneakily, asequel& also contiguous with the events in the first three books.”— Andrew Webster,The Verge°°°Jeff VanderMeerinsists that he does not predict the future. Yet mere weeks before his new novel,Absolution, hit shelves, Hurricane Helene tore through the part of Florida where he lives, sharing an uncanny likeness to the fictional hurricane in his book.— Siri Chilukuri,Mother Jones