Brandon leaves his boyfriend in the city for a quiet life in the mountains, after an affair with a professor ends with Brandon being forced to kill a research animal. It is a violent, unfortunate episode that conjures memories from his military background.
In the mountains, his new neighbors are using the increased temperatures to stage an agricultural project in an effort to combat globally heightened food prices and shortages. Brandon gets swept along with their optimism, while simultaneously applying to a new astronaut training program. However, he learns that these changes — internal, external — are irreversible.
A sublime love story coupled with the universal struggle for personal understanding, is an informed novel of consequences with an ever-tightening emotional grip on the reader.
"Fascinating, surreal, gorgeously written, and like nothing you’ve ever read before, Not Dark Yet is the book we all need to read right now. It is art about science, climate change, and activism, and it vitally explores how we as people deal with a world that is transforming in terrifying ways."
—
"[Ellingsen] is just starting what promises to be a major career, but already giving readers a unique and fascinating perspective."
— Jeff VanderMeer
"I cannot remember the last time a writer impressed me so quickly."
—
Berit Ellingsen