Satellite Love

ANNA


Did you know that most people are hollow?

It s true. You see medical diagrams of the body sometimes, the ones where we re stuffed full with kidneys, gallbladders, lungs, and it s easy to get the impression that there s no space left inside. But those drawings always miss the gaps. For example, I have an empty spot inside my chest, below my sternum, that if I hit just right lets out a soft thump. A personal echo.

I suspect that everyone has their own hollow spot, one that lets out a unique tone when tapped. You just need to find it. Perhaps yours is behind your head, in your lower back, or along your ribs. The problem is, most people don t seem to understand that they re empty, too.

I can pinpoint the moment I realized I was hollow. It was during my first year of high school, and Ms. Tanaka was prattling on in Social Studies class about old gods and ancient tales. Her favourite story was about Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and her brother Susanoo, god of the storms and seas. A long time ago, Susanoo had destroyed some of Amaterasu s rice paddies, and out of anger the sun goddess hid in a cave, casting the world into shadow.

All the other gods became nervous when she wouldn t emerge, realizing that if she hid forever, they would be forced to live an eternity in darkness. Of course, they didn t actually care about her; they just wanted her light. They ended up luring her out with a party, pretending that they had found another, better sun goddess instead, and celebrated loudly enough for her to hear. When Amaterasu got jealous and peeked out to see who this new goddess could be, the other gods pulled her out
from the cave and trapped her.

At this point, the girls who sat behind me started giggling, and I glanced back despite knowing better. All five of them were sitting with their backs completely straight, hands folded on their desks, suddenly model students. I tried to figure out what, exactly, they were laughing at, but they simply

GENKI FERGUSON was born in New Brunswick to a family of writers and grew up in Calgary. He spent much of his childhood in the subtropical island of Kyushu, Japan, where his mother's family still resides. Fluent in Japanese and capable of making a decent sushi roll, Genki was the recipient of the 2017 Helen Pitt Award for visual arts, and recently completed a degree in Film Production while working part-time at Book Warehouse, an indie store in Vancouver.

"Satellite Love is one of those rare and affecting novels that will leave you breathless, charmed, and deeply thoughtful. A beautiful rumination on sentience, imagination, impermanence and friendship, Genki Ferguson has written a story that lives on the precarious and satisfying edge of melancholy and exuberance." Ruth Ozeki, author A Tale for the Time Being

"A charming, strange and occasionally unsettling story about isolation, obsession, faith and connection that confronts heady questions about consciousness and what it means to be a fully aware, sentient being. . . . An impressively assured debut." Calgary Herald
 
"A beautiful debut novel. . . .Maybe an unconventional novel about the perils of loneliness is the perfect read for these unconventional, lonely times. Maybe we need the detached musings of a satellite in love, looking outside in, to remind us of what it means to be human especially when our sense of self seems to be slipping from our grasp." Stacey May Fowles, Open Book
 
"This debut unconventional novel from indie bookseller Genki Ferguson is one of the most tender books I've read recently." Rupert McNally, bookseller at Ben McNally Books, Toronto Life
 
"A strange, sweet, and heartbreaking story about loneliness, difference, and what it means to be human. . . . It's a tender and beautiful read. . . . Ferguson's debut is truly a bittersweet, and stunning story. A weird and wonderful meditation on the painfully human desire to believe in something greater than us." SheDoesTheCity
 
"A tender tragedy that highlights the values of connection and being present while asking what it means to truly exist and be real." Politics and Prose Bookstore Staff Pick
 
"I loved the beautifully realized characters. I loved the interplay between memory and imagination. . . . And the writing was exquisite. Yes, I