Six nested stories spanning from the 19th-century Pacific to a post-apocalyptic future, each interrupted at its midpoint and resumed in reverse order. Mitchell published it in 2004 and pulled off a formal stunt that most novelists would fumble. Each section is written in a different genre and voice. The argument (that power, predation, and resistance recur across centuries) earns its ambition.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.