A Literary Science Fiction Novel of Time Travel, Magical Realism and an Irrepressible Mitochondrial Eve
By Erik Larson
Coming July 2026!
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Kikiloa is Mitochondrial Eve, the 200,000-year-old mother of humanity and our lyrical first storyteller.
As a time surfer flickering across a trillion universes, she’s determined to discover an antidote to entropy before everything meaningful is lost.
And now she’s a freckled fourteen-year-old trickster bounding across a San Francisco park to meet her kind, grounded friend Hazel, who Kiki believes can cause even death to pass people by. Probably.
When a cliff collapses beneath them and Kiki vanishes mid-fall, Hazel is left alone with their attacker to begin her contemporary coming-of-age, while Kiki’s hopes unravel back to the trauma of her bleak beginnings as outcast and slave in a dystopian prehistoric world.
But Kiki never lets up, whether lamenting a Hawaiian tsunami, alchemizing sniper attacks, telling quantum stories, weaving through highway pileups, going Jungian, or baking perfectly average cookies. And throughout, she spars with her infuriating, enigmatic mentor Paha, who believes surfing is elegy: all waves break, and fighting the end only creates suffering.
The Kikiloa Chronicles is Erik Larson’s emotionally vast, funny, and wild speculative literary debut, carried by Kiki’s unmistakable voice from the devastating loneliness of her first life to the hard wisdom of friendship. Irrepressible and imperfect, she wrestles with love, a force like gravity, alive at the core of a universe destined for darkness.
David Mitchell meets A Wrinkle in Time by way of Matt Haig and Ursula K. Le Guin.
Content Note
This story contains scenes of natural disasters with loss of life, gun violence with young teens in danger, and sexual oppression in a dystopian prehistoric setting. The scenes are not graphic, but readers sensitive to these themes may wish to know in advance.
Advance Praise
“I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite like this, not in scope or execution. It’s emotionally rich, and that’s in large part because the characters feel like distinct, real people.” — Ruchi, early reader
“I was immediately gripped and fully immersed from the first couple of pages. The twists and turns kept the story moving, and vivid imagery carried me through the key dramatic moments — the tsunamis, the iceberg ride, the dream of the many-trunked tree. I didn’t want to put this book down.” — Jess, early reader
“There was never a place where I didn’t want to keep reading. In a way, it was like riding a wave. All I had to do was ride and let the water take me. I didn’t want it to end.” — Leo, early reader
“Kikiloa is painfully human — messy and emotional and reactive. She makes mistakes and holds grudges. But mostly, she loves fiercely. You don’t expect to connect with a 200,000-year-old being who has seen and experienced so much, but this story does that for you at every turn.” — Kaycee, early reader
“Science in fiction in the spirit of Madeleine L’Engle — folding in both the fantastical and the philosophical. Defies genres beautifully.” — Caroline, early reader
Fun. Fast. Deep. A voice you won’t forget.
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