Ghost Species
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When scientist Kate Larkin joins a secretive project to re-engineer the climate by resurrecting extinct species, she becomes enmeshed in another, even more clandestine program to recreate our long-lost relatives, the Neanderthals. But when the first of the children, a girl called Eve, is born, Kate cannot bear the thought her growing up in a laboratory, and so elects to abduct her, and raise her alone. Set against the backdrop of hastening climate catastrophe, Ghost Species is an exquisitely beautiful and deeply affecting exploration of connection and loss in an age of planetary trauma. For as Eve grows to adulthood she and Kate must face the question of who and what she is. Is she natural or artificial? Human or non-human? And perhaps most importantly, as civilisation unravels around them, is Eve the ghost species, or are we? Thrillingly original, Ghost Species is embedded with a deep love and understanding of the natural world.
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James Bradley's previous novel, Clade, which also dealt with climate change, although in a much more straightforward way, was superb. One of my favourite novels of recent times. With Ghost Species he has again written an eerily prescient story not only of climate change, but of what it means to be human.
Kate Larkin and her partner Jay are recruited to a secret project funded by eccentric (or mad) billionaire David Hucken (a sort of amalgam of Zuckerberg and Musk) to re-engineer the climate by resurrecting extinct species such as the Auroch and Wooly Mammoth. But there is an even more secret program - to recreate the Neanderthal. Through a combination of genome sequencing and unlimited funds they actually succeed and a baby girl is born whom they name Eve. It is at this point that Kate realises the implications of what they have done, but also forms a strong motherly bond with her creation.
The story then follows Eve's upbringing by Kate against a backdrop of ever accelerating climate change. Hidden away on Tasmania, Eve struggles to understand the difference between her and “normal” sapient children. Her physique and features mark her out as different from the start. Kate is determined that Eve will not be a lab rat and tries to give her as normal a childhood as she can. But as Eve heads into her teenage years questions loom about who and what she is.
Bradley handles the family dynamics very well, as he did in Clade, and the focus is very much on Kate and Eve's relationship, with climate change a dark undercurrent that runs throughout the novel. It is extremely readable and very thought provoking, not only about scientific hubris (just because we can it doesn't mean we should), but also about what we have done to the planet and how little we have done to halt the catastrophe hurtling towards us.
The final quarter of the book is quite moving, with Eve approaching adulthood amidst a vanishing world and societal breakdown. Changes come and she must change to survive.
An excellent novel, highly recommended.
