Phase Six

When an 11-year-old boy named Aleq breathes in long-buried molecules that have just been exposed by mining, he becomes the first victim of an epidemic outbreak. Yet, unlike many others from his tiny Greenland settlement, he survives the illness. As the disease spreads around the world, CDC investigators rush to find the cause and cure, and Aleq must deal with the guilt of starting a global disaster. Written before the Covid-19 pandemic, the book puts into sharp focus the effects of our individual actions and the bureaucracy’s response to contagion.