Jeff VanderMeer in Conversation With Amy Stewart

Jeff VanderMeer’s Absolution: A Southern Reach Novel (Picador) opens decades before Area X forms, with a science expedition whose mysterious end suggests terrifying consequences for the future—and marks the Forgotten Coast as a high-priority area of interest for Central, the shadowy government agency responsible for monitoring extraordinary threats.

Many years later, the Forgotten Coast files wind up in the hands of a Central operative known as Old Jim. He starts pulling a thread that reveals a long and troubling record of government agents [...]