Near the end of the novel, there's a character who has a hard time talking about everything they experienced over the course of the story. Various other characters engage with that reluctance in distinctly different ways. The entire novel is told this way. The overlapping narratives each have a distinct structure. We learn general and personal history. We watch relationships bloom and change and end. The climax is foreshadowed in stages. Everything is layers and echos: how people interact with the animals around them, how some slaves were kings, how the US treats the Virgin Islands, how the aliens treat humanity, how the aliens were treated to become how they are.

I lost someone close on September 9th, 2001. Turnbull captured well the particular grief that is amplified by everyone grieving for something else.