Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Franny Stone is more than just a woman with a past; there is a wildness in her that she cannot tame. This wildness has led her on a harrowing journey tracking the migration of the last arctic terns. Franny will do anything to follow these beloved birds, especially when all wildlife has become extinct. If you are into eco-fiction, then this is probably the book for you. Migrations takes place in the not-so-distant future, making it difficult to read. If you suffer from climate anxiety, you may not take solace in Franny's story.
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer
In the second book of The Southern Reach Trilogy, VanderMeer’s protagonist, John Rodriguez aka “Control,” becomes the new director of The Southern Reach, an organization studying the abnormal stretch of land known as Area X. Control essentially takes on the role of investigator and tries to unravel the mysterious behavior of his new colleagues in hopes it will shed light on the anomalies in Area X. As he tries to get a sense of Area X and the hidden motives of the previous director, Control becomes more confused and uncertain, not only about the institution’s future but his as well. Rodriguez even develops an uncanny fascination with the biologist from the first book in the series, Annihilation.
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
The Memory Police was originally published in 1994 with the release of the English translation in 2019. The novel is set up in a dystopian setting and is written in the vein of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and George Orwell’s 1984. It is an intimate portrayal of love and communal trauma due to strange forces that wreak havoc on the residents of an island.
The community begins witnessing the disappearance of common objects. Birds, roses, and hats are among the first to disappear, but people’s memories of the disappeared also start to vanish. The novel’s protagonist is a young novelist who tries to preserve her fading memories. When she realizes her editor R is in trouble, she concocts a plan to hide him from a mysterious agency called The Memory Police. As more disappearances occur and life on the island becomes increasingly worse, the novelist desperately clings to her writing and R as a way of preserving her existence.