A mystical and mercury-ladened mystery involving trees that walk, desert illusions, and a 100-year-old diary.

OBSERVER
by Nicholas Russell
Ecco, Fall 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

For fans of Brian Evenson, K-Ming Chang, and Jeff VanderMeer, OBSERVER is the story of the American desert, government cover-ups, family devotion, and how curiosity for the truth or a version of it sends even the most sane into the deepest depths.

Renata’s mother left her in the care of her aunt and took a job at an observatory when she was young, never to return. Now in her early twenties, Renata receives a truck load of her mother’s papers and possessions one day; the family assumes her dead. Renata, curious and undeterred, packs up her camera and her mothers’ notebooks and drives to the Observatory, asking questions the locals would prefer not to answer and reminding them of what they’ve been denying for years. Renata might be able to complete the research her mother was undergoing, but she might also reach for a truth much stranger than any of the tall tales the desert weaves through her dreams.

Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas. His work has appeared in The Believer, McSweeney’s, The Atlantic, Conjunctions, The Baffler, The Drift, and Defector. He is a bookseller at The Writer’s Block, Managing Editor of Still Alive magazine, and a contributor to Defector.