A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERLocus Awards Finalist ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York magazine, Time, Kirkus, Literary Hub, Goodreads Featuring a new introduction by award-winning author Julia Armfield. Absolution opens decades before Area X forms, with a science expedition whose mysterious end suggests terrifying consequences for the future--and marks the Forgotten Coast as a high priority for Central, the shadowy federal agency that monitors extraordinary threats. Many years later, the Forgotten Coast files wind up in the hands of a washed-up Central operative, Old Jim. He starts pulling a thread that reveals a long, troubling record of government agents meddling with forces they clearly cannot comprehend. Old Jim's investigation culminates in the first Central expedition into what has now been labeled Area X. A border has come down, and a full team has been assembled to find Area X's "off switch" somewhere in the volatile, dangerous terrain that has defied all attempts to be explored, mapped, or controlled. Absolution converges the past, present, and future in unnerving, ecstatic, and mind-bending ways. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.