Hummingbird Salamander was published by MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2021, and it represents VanderMeer’s engagement with the thriller genre — a book that uses the conventions of paranoid conspiracy fiction to explore extinction, environmental collapse, and the psychological cost of ecological awareness.
“Jane Smith” (not her real name) is a security consultant — competent, controlled, a mother, a professional — who receives an anonymous message directing her to a storage unit containing a taxidermied hummingbird. The hummingbird belonged to Silvina, the dead daughter of a billionaire, and it is one of several taxidermied endangered species that Silvina acquired or stole before her death. Jane becomes obsessed with tracking down the other specimens — particularly a salamander — and in doing so is drawn into a conspiracy involving ecoterrorists, corporate malfeasance, and the legacy of Silvina’s radical environmental activism.
What makes the novel more than a thriller is VanderMeer’s treatment of Jane’s psychological unraveling. As she goes deeper into Silvina’s world, she loses everything — her job, her family, her health, her identity — and what she gains in return is not resolution but awareness: awareness of how fragile the world is, how complicit she has been in its destruction, and how inadequate individual action is in the face of systemic catastrophe.
Collecting Hummingbird Salamander
First edition (MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2021): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $10–$20
- Signed first edition: $25–$60