Loss

Throughout the novel, the author uses the effects of the Arctic plague on human civilization to catalyze a complex exploration of loss. In each chapter of the novel, a distinct first person narrator or main character is impacted by the mysterious Arctic virus. The virus not only disrupts life on Earth in the characters' narrative presents, but causes them to lose loved ones over the years to come. In "30,000 Years Beneath a Eulogy," even before Cliff and his research crew discover and unleash the virus, Cliff becomes acquainted with loss via his daughter Clara's death. Indeed, he travels to Siberia not only to finish Clara's work, but to try "to understand Clara" (20). Years before she died, Clara largely disappeared from her parents' and daughter's life. Her absence, therefore, was a precursor to the loss Cliff would feel after her death.

After Cliff and his team accidentally...