Nightshining
“Nightshining” by Jennifer Kabat, published by Milkweed Editions in 2025, is a 360-page exploration that intertwines a family memoir with a critical examination of the Cold War’s impact on the environment. The narrative begins with Kabat’s personal experiences in Margaretville, New York, where she confronts the immediate effects of climate crisis and flooding. As she investigates the region’s environmental history, the book reveals a complex tapestry of human actions and natural disasters, highlighting the interplay between nature and human legacies.
Readers will find a layered analysis of historical events, including Cold War weather experiments and the experiences of the Mohawk Nation, all framed through Kabat’s reflections on grief following her father’s death. “Nightshining” delves into themes of resistance and control, using the landscape as a canvas to explore broader questions about humanity’s relationship with nature. The memoir’s inquisitive and experimental style invites readers to consider the connections between personal history and the larger forces shaping our world.
Official synopsis Publisher
“Jennifer Kabat’s Nightshining sifts a riveting exposé 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 region’s fraught environmental history, it becomes clear that this is far from the first–and hardly the worst–disaster 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 Vonnegut’s older brother, Bernard–all reflected through grief brought on by her father’s 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 human–the cosmos thrumming in our bodies, connecting readers to the land around us and time before us.
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