- Ghost Species, by James Bradley. Hamish Hamilton. $29.99.
James Bradley has established an impressive reputation as an author on climate fiction (cli-fi), notably with Clade (2015), and as a commentator on environmental issues. In 2012 he won the Pascall Prize for Australia's Critic of the Year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In Ghost Species, Bradley portrays a near future world well down the path of climate change catastrophe, with the extinction of many species and a collapse of society. Earth is "past the tipping point".
Bradley has said that as he was writing the novel, "real events were constantly outpacing what I could imagine and that the kind of catastrophe I'm exploring was already unfolding around me ".
Ghost Species sees two young geneticists, Jay and Kate, who are in an uneasy personal relationship, recruited by social network billionaire Davis Hucken to work in his secret research laboratory in Tasmania.
Bradley says Tasmania "has powerful existing associations with extinction that I wanted to conjure up, plus I wanted to draw on its symbolism of colonial heedlessness''.
Hucken's' research establishments have secretly resurrected thylacines, mammoths and genetically engineered plants in a bid to restore the damaged environment.
Now, Hucken intends to recreate a Neanderthal baby, using a surrogate mother and DNA extracted from an ancient tooth found in a French cave. Hucken wants to prove that we are not "distinct, separate, unique".
The project is successful. The baby, appropriately named Eve, cries when born with "a sound not heard for forty thousand years".
With the proof of concept achieved, Husken rejects the need for more babies , leaving Kate disillusioned on ethical grounds with her "billionaire puppet master boss".
The "project is wrong, not because it is an exercise in vanity, because it places humans at the centre of things or pretends to godhood".
Kate, whose relationship with Jay deteriorates when she miscarries, absconds with Eve to a remote country town, where she keeps Eve hidden from prying locals. Kate, however, will not be able to escape Husken's surveillance.
The bulk of the novel then follows, creakily at times, Eve and Kate's story over 25 years. Eve, despite some physical differences, develops "within the normal sapient range", and is able to comprehend her "other" status entailing connection and disconnection with humanity.
Ghost Species is ultimately "unconsoling", in Bradley's words, depicting a world brought down by human arrogance .
Bradley's powerful narrative reflects that humanity collectively needs to change, a message even more relevant in the current coronavirus pandemic.