Chile’s Atacama Desert is renowned for stargazing, yet it also holds a dark history from the Pinochet regime. Nona Fernandez’ mother suffers from fainting spells and her brain scans reveal a complex tapestry of neurons triggered by memories. The author of Space Invaders and The Twilight Zone maps these disparate elements of illness, the cosmos, and her country’s history into a deeply imagined memoir that awakens ghosts.