Mateo Askaripour’s second novel This Great Hemisphere is set 500 years into our future, in what is now known as the Northwestern Hemisphere, a part of the world where human society has survived massive climate change yet continues to exits in a capitalist, bigoted system that isn’t at all an improvement on what we currently know. The ecology is a shadow of what it once was, but there is a great deal of fancy technology that allows humans to maintain class and race divisions. But the biggest change has been that as of 2028, some human babies were born entirely invisible to the naked eye. What happens when you’re not just insignificant to society and the system, but also actually literally invisible? How does the world shape you into something it can control? How do you define who you are under such circumstances?
The Dominant Population of the Northwestern Hemisphere (known as DPs) are people who are visible, people who are in charge, who are seen and recognised and given preference by the state and by the government which is obviously made up of just them. The Invisibles are the second class citizens in what is pretty much an apartheid state, where the Invisibles are exploited, controlled and used. Made to wear collars that identify and locate them, they sometimes choose to paint themselves into visibility with random colours they like. This does not tell us anything about their actual race or ethnicity; in fact, we are not explicitly told that all Invisible people are people of colour, but it is a safe assumption to make, since we do know that the first invisible child is born to a homeless Black woman in New York City, and we do know that some of the Invisible characters have locs.
It is also, of course the metaphor upon which the novel’s entire premise stands, and it is not a subtle one. While it is clear from the onset that Askaripour is writing about America’s immense racial inequality and class divides, the idea of people who are considered less important as being physically invisible feels heavy handed at times, especially as we are not given any explanation of how or why random babies began to be born invisible. There is some mention in the novel’s third arc of a gene that can be passed down (no spoilers here), but that is all we’re given.
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This Great Hemisphere
Though the novel switches between multiple voices and points of view, the story is mainly told from the perspective of an Invisible character called Sweetmint (or Candace, as the state names her), a highly intelligent young woman who was abandoned by her only known family member, her brother, though she has since then continued to live and work within her forest community of Invisibles without him. Sweetmint has been selected to apprentice with the Great Architect, a genius DP inventor who created much of the technology that helped human society survive massive climate change (and also set up elements of the systems that allow DPs to maintain socioeconomic control). Croger Tenmase had built a stable environment for the Northwestern Hemisphere when it was most needed, and is now working towards something he calls the great Reset. He wants Sweetmint to be a part of his work, though what this reset is or whether it will truly benefit the entire human population is unknown to both Sweetmint and to the reader. Tenmase comes across as an idiosyncratic inventor, but not a harmless one at all. He proudly takes credit for, and even shows off about having invented nearly everything that has created the current status quo—one where his kind have control over the Invisibles lives and futures.
But before Sweetmint can begin to truly understand him or his potentially nefarious plans, the Chief Executive of the Northwestern Hemisphere is murdered, and the main suspect is Sweetmint’s missing bother Shanu. Sweetmint is desperate to absolve Shanu from the charges, and decides she will do anything to find him.
She isn’t the only one adamant to find Shanu, though: Everyone else wants to find him too, especially the men who are vying to fill the suddenly empty office of the Chief Executive. Promises are made, lies are told, power dynamics shift and accusations fly. The manhunt for one “dangerous” Invisible who suddenly represents an entire race of people becomes more and more complex as we delve deeper into the world Askaripour has created, its politics and its warped, corrupt systems.
This Great Hemisphere is set in what is very much within the realm of our current reality: The privileged few control the flow of information, of health, of food, of technology, making sure everyone else cannot escape the chokehold of capitalism. Processed foods, limited resources for health care, education, employment all ensure that there is very little upward mobility for anyone not born directly into Dominant Population. Society is run like a corporation; the head of state is the Chief Executive, and local area managers and directors are in line for that role, not ministers or senators. All lower level employees are Invisibles and are completely othered, with condescendingly racist policies in place to keep them from being able to improve their status, even if they are lucky enough like Sweetmint is, to work with important DPs. The struggle for power remains between certain ruthless members of the Dominant Population, who are only ever concerned with their own wellbeing, willing to ruthlessly sacrifice the safety and lives of Invisibles to keep the precious social imbalances in their own favour.
This is an ambitious, expansive novel of big ideas set in a big world with complicated (and many) characters, a twisty plot and politically charged, valid and important themes, but at times it can feel a little unwieldy. The pace is unfortunately uneven, the dialogue can be a bit stilted (though perhaps this is how people talk in the future?), and the metaphors can weigh you down. While we do get a great deal of worldbuilding about certain elements, we are missing vital pieces, e.g. the cause of the Invisibles’ births, the root of the language being used by them, or why all food is so brightly artificially coloured. The multiple POVs, the many characters being referred to by two different names, the multi-pronged plot that feels like the first of a duology or trilogy all make you work just that little bit harder, which would not be as taxing if the narrative was a little shorter, a little tighter and just a little more streamlined, so it could move more smoothly to become the political thriller it wants to be.
This Great Hemisphere is published by Dutton.
