In The Unfamiliar Garden, the second in a trilogy of books by Benjamin Percy, a husband and wife lose their daughter in a mushroom-filled wood after two major events - a comet and a massive meteor shower - change the landscape and atmosphere of the Earth and slowly, violently its inhabitants too. The mushrooms that once were are not the mushrooms of the present and future in this world; they have become something other, something invasive, something biologically tyrannical, taking over people's bodies, making them do terrible things, commit horrible crimes. But is that the only thing these mutated mushrooms are capable of? Could they be understood and harnessed to help life itself adapt in another way?
While Percy's narrative is technically Science Fiction mixed in with Mystery/Thriller in terms of literary genre, the elements of realism tapped into the story make for an urgent, even prescient read. Covid is mentioned throughout, underlying the main narrative. The comet and meteor shower that alter the natural landscape and Covid do not ultimately signal an emergency of the same kind or same origin, yet they both seem to work in tandem with one another because they are about a kind of unknown, manifested illness. However, Covid, a manmade accident manifested by corrupt economies (i.e. Capitalism: unethical food trades) is not like what happens after these cosmological events, though the symptoms are both ugly. The comet and meteor seem like more of a response to hidden, or latent, sicknesses that are already murmuring on the human planet, as a way to jumpstart evolution, perhaps, albeit terrifyingly and brutally. Or something else? Something more sinister?
The two main characters, the husband, Jack, a mycologist, and his wife, Nora, a homicide detective, lose their marriage due to the emotional fallout after their daughter Mia's disappearance. Their personal and public lives crumble, Jack's more than Nora's, but as they go through the motions, they find themselves on a path back to one another as each one's work signals towards more and more clues surrounding the mysterious loss of Mia.
The thread that runs through the entire trilogy are the initial cosmic events that become a spectacle for the masses to watch not knowing what exactly is permeating the Earth's atmosphere. When they find out that the remains are worth something like money, they scrounge and scavenge for it. Much of the material is a new compound called omnimetal, but The Unfamiliar Garden focuses on another altered material from the cosmic accident: mushrooms. The public is "in" on it, as is academia, as is the government, and consequentially, strange and heinous things start happening in homes, public spaces, and various facilities everywhere.
At the Department of Defense, a scientist named Isaac Peaches is forced to merge with a symbio-prototype that came out of the alteration of the Earth and into the mushrooms:
"She would nod her head and offer him many compliments and communicate requests that often translated to weaponization. Could the new strain of cellulose be developed into a bark blade? Could the pronounced alkaloids be distilled into an untraceable poison?
...
The cells were made of glass, not metal, and brightly lit. One of them was smeared with black mold. Another fluttered with moths with red eyes on their wings. Another held a man with skin that appeared gray and cracked and elephant-like, and as they passed by, he peeled a long strip from his arm and ate it..." (p. 50, 53)
Isaac Peaches is one of many in the book who have been forced to merge with the organic material that burgeons from anything it might be able to grow on and within. While his case isn't seemingly as severe, afterwards being able to glean information and communicate with the natural landscape through unseen sensory organs, many of the other characters respond gravely, through mental and physical illnesses that appear to be psychoses. Some are driven to murder, some to complete sedation. Still more are buried alive, and those that remain on the ground or are found have the organisms growing out from, on, and through their bodies:
"Around the corner comes a dog, a mutt maybe eighty-pounds, broad-backed with a boxy face, and brown fur dappled gray. There is something clearly wrong with it. Its gait is unsteady and its head glances off a telephone pole and then crashes full-on into a parked car. It wears a collar, but when she whistles, when she says, 'Here, boy', she realizes she won't be able to check the tags because it goes still at the sound of her and wrinkles it muzzle and shows its teeth. They are red with blood and clotted with flesh. A growl rumbles the air, heavy enough that she can feel it. The light is fading, but she sees now that its eyes are rimmed and oozing with what appears to be fungal growth. Mushrooms sprout tumorously from its nose and ears." (p. 104, 105)
While these invasive mushrooms take over bodies, entire rooms within seemingly normal buildings, innocent people's homes, the forests, and other places, Jack and Nora move onward, trying to help those who have been infected in its wake. As they work, they meet both Isaac Peaches and his boss, one Director Ricketts, who by the end, have found their daughter Mia, alive, and buried deep underground. Mia emerges with a newfound power, and the alterations to her body effect her as they do Peaches, not quite maliciously, but extremely strong and mutable. The four of them, five including Mia, coming to terms with their differences in belief, their disbelief, and ethics, conclude with the only reasonable action: to work together despite these differences, figure out what the hell is going on re. mushrooms, evolution, insane ecological shifts in materiality, and to consume the inevitable, to, as Percy writes "infect the infection".
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