Ecological Memory

2019 Ailanthus, Caroline. Ecological Memory. Berlin, MD: Salt Water Media. 301 pp.

The novel is set after a pandemic, probably started deliberately, that wipes out all but 10% of the world’s population and depicts the relatively good society that is emerging after a period of conflict. Some technology, like the internet, has been revived, but the new society is based on independent but cooperating communities, each of which has its own money, called shares, that expire after two years. Occupations are organized into guilds, whose members wear identifiable clothing which, because clothing is expensive, are worn both when working and as leisure wear. The author says that she “writes post-apocalyptic optimism” (11). The text has Appendices “The Science of Ecological Memory (269-291), “An Annotated Reading List” (292-299), and “A Glossary of Sorts” (300-301) that describes the plants depicted at the beginning of each of the nine chapters. Female author.