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THE FREQUENCY OF LIVING THINGS

Nick Fuller Googins

A heartbreaking American epic about three sisters who unearth lifetimes of family tensions as they are forced to rescue one of their own from peril, testing the limits of sacrifice, sisterhood, and forgiveness from the author of the "profound work of great wisdom" (Alice Elliott Dark) The Great Transition.
Josie may be the youngest sister, but she takes care of everyone. She is the left-brained scientist to her twin sisters' right-brained artistic chaos. She makes sure their rent gets paid on time, they make their therapy appointments, and has also been their de-facto band manager since she was a teenager. When Ara, her middle sister (by a few minutes), calls from jail, it isn't exactly a surprise, and Josie knows exactly how to snap into action. Emma is the quintessential frontwoman, complete with looks and attitude. But the success of The Twins' first (and only) albumgold records, Grammy nominations, and diehard fansis two decades behind her. Hiding under the surface of her swagger is a long-held guilt that has turned her into her sister's enabler. Emma knows she needs Ara's creative genius and thinks a jailhouse record could be just the thing to get Ara her freedom and their band back on the main stage. Ara is detoxing, not only from her opioid habit but also from her family. The truth is, as crazy as it sounds, she's not in a hurry to get out of lock-up. In the most unlikely and dangerous of places, this could be her chance to face the demons of her past and disentangle herself from her family. Bertie, who raised her three daughters as a single mother, has always taught them that family won't always be around to take care of you. A former defense attorney and perennial do-gooder, she's committed to taking care of everyone less fortunate even if that means putting her girl's needs second. But now Bertie must decide if she should reenter her daughter's lives in their greatest time of needor watch to see if the resilience she's taught them will help carry them through. A story both intimate and sweeping, The Frequency of Living Things explores the timeless question of how our individual destinies are intertwined with our family, our siblings, and our history no matter how we try to untangle ourselves from them. Nick Fuller Googins' short stories and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, The Sun, The Los Angeles Times, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. His debut novel The Great Transition was a Indie Next pick, a Goodreads choice nominee, and a Simon & Schuster Top Shelf pick.
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Published 2025-08-12 by Atria Books

Comments

This book melds the huge and the intimate, the imperatives of our global climate crisis with the more compact narrative of a family trying to do right by one another when the world goes sideways. Fuller-Googins stares down some of today's biggest societal issues with abundant imagination and endless empathy.

quote Emily Nemens, author of The Cactus League

The Great Transition asks what it means to start overas a society and as individualsand then answers with visionary scope. Offering readers thrilling glimpses into utopic possibilities born from collective mobilization, as well as an unflinching assessment of our climate crisis, Nick Fuller Googins brilliantly renders the personal political and the political personal. A must-read debut that kept me enthralled and left me inspired.

quote Allegra Hyde, author of Eleutheria

A magnificent debut novel that's both an important cautionary tale and a deeply compelling family story. Although set in a stunningly well-imagined future in the aftermath of a climate apocalypse, The Great Transition is electrifyingly relevant. I can't remember ever being more impressed with a first novel.

quote William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author of This Tender Land

Emotionally compelling and humane.

review The Washington Post

Nick Fuller Googins demonstrates exactly the kind of clear-eyed utopian thinking we'll need more of as we work together to solve our climate crisis, wrapping a call to action, accountability, and mutual aid in a story that's as thrilling as it is moving. Every worthwhile novel sets out to change its readerthis one sets out to change the world. I hope it does.

quote Matt Bell, author of Appleseed

A page-turner chock full of optimistic ideas for how we can reimagine our collective future.

review Lit Hub

Hopeful, bold, imaginative, and heartbreaking, The Great Transition lucidly shows the incredible capacity of utopian thinking to inspire and change lives, while addressing the devastating costs of climate inaction. I can't stop thinking about this visionary novel and its singular characters. Nick Fuller Googins has written a book for the present and the future read this and you will be changed.

quote Michelle Min Sterling, New York Times bestselling author of Camp Zero

This remarkable novel tells the story of a family trying to hold together after the world has shattered by a cataclysmic climate disaster. Nick Fuller Googins writes beautifully and knowledgeably about the speculative future while focusing on a compelling human story. I was moved by the enormous moral conviction at the heart of The Great Transition and its vision of the future, one that is full of human folly but ultimately offers hope. This is a profound work of great wisdom.

quote Alice Elliott Dark, author of Fellowship Point and In the Gloaming

The Great Transition sets itself apart through its visionary scope and possibility for change.Urgent but hopeful.

review Chicago Review of Books