Hummingbird Salamander: A Novel

“Jane Smith”—not her real name—receives an envelope that contains a note from a woman she doesn’t know and a key to an anonymous storage unit. The key leads her to a pair of taxidermied animals, a hummingbird and a salamander, which turn out to be two of the most endangered creatures on earth.

Jane has set in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control. She is being followed, her home surveilled, her family in peril. The author of the mysterious note—Jane’s only real lead—is already dead. She was, Jane learns, a reputed ecoterrorist. What did she want with Jane?

Profiteering wildlife smugglers; an amoral energy company; an extremist’s apocalyptic vision. The threats come from all around, and time is running out—for Jane and possibly for the world.

Hummingbird Salamander is Jeff VanderMeer at his dazzling, cinematic best, wrapping profound questions into a tightly plotted tale of the fight to survive.