Nightshining

Jennifer Kabats Nightshining sifts a riveting expos of the Cold War technocratic fantasy-state through lyrical family memoir. Her superb investigation calls to mind those of Rebecca Solnit and Errol Morris, among others.Jonathan Lethem A propulsive, layered examination of the conflict between the course of nature and human legacies of resistance and control. Floods, geoengineering, climate crisis. Her first year in Margaretville, New York, Jennifer Kabat wakes to a rain-swollen stream and her basement flooding. As she delves into the regions fraught environmental history, it becomes clear that this is far from the firstand hardly the worstdisaster in the region. Tracing connections across time, she uncovers Cold War weather experiments, betrayals of the Mohawk Nation, and an unlikely cast of characters, including Kurt Vonneguts older brother, Bernardall reflected through grief brought on by her fathers recent passing. Inquisitive and experimental, Nightshining uses place as a palimpsest of history. With lyrical incision, Kabat mirrors her own life experience and the essence of being humanthe cosmos thrumming in our bodies, connecting readers to the land around us and time before us.