Good Morning, Midnight

Good Morning, Midnight, by Lily Brooks-Dalton, is a character-driven speculative fiction novel published in 2016 and adapted into the Netflix film The Midnight Sky in 2020. Exploring loneliness versus Human and Environmental Connection, Time, Memory, and Redemption, and The Effects of Parenting on Identity, the novel tells the alternating stories of Augustine “Augie” Lofthouse, an astrophysicist in the Arctic, and Iris “Sully” Sullivan, an astronaut returning from a mission to Jupiter. Inspired by Brooks-Dalton’s experience cleaning snow off a radio antenna to prevent disruptions in connection, the plot centers around the psychological experiences of the characters when they lose contact with the rest of Earth’s inhabitants.

This study guide refers to the 2017 Random House edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

Augustine “Augie” Lofthouse is an aging astrophysicist at the Barbeau Observatory in the Arctic. During what he had considered his final academic project, the Air Force had arrived alongside rumors of impending war; as they evacuated all personnel, warning that no further evacuation missions would occur, Augie chose to remain behind, accepting that he would most likely die in the observatory. Not long after the evacuation, he discovered Iris, a girl he believes was left behind in the chaos. Unable to contact anyone via radio, he has since begrudgingly accepted her presence and attempts to provide basic survival needs, allowing her to accompany him on his walks around the grounds.

Iris “Sully” Sullivan is an astronaut on board the Aether spacecraft and part of the first space mission to Jupiter. Among the crew are Harper (the captain), Tal, Ivanov, Thebes, and Devi. At first in awe of Jupiter and the data gathered there, the crewmembers slowly fall into varying levels of anxiety and depression as messages from Earth cease.

In their isolation, Augie, Sully, and the crew of the Aether all slip into lives fraught with memory and regret. The presence of Iris forces Augie to contend with the concept of fatherhood, a role that he actively abandoned after impregnating a doctoral student in New Mexico. As he slowly takes on this responsibility, he falls sick, and his fever-induced dreams call him back to his youth, showing him the line of people, especially women, whom he used and hurt.

Sully wrestles with feelings of inadequacy, struggling to reconcile her love for her daughter, societal expectations of motherhood, and her choice to leave her daughter for a two-year mission to Jupiter. Heightening this struggle is the crew’s concern that something catastrophic has happened on Earth, potentially destroying their loved ones and their homes. Each of the crewmembers reacts differently, turning to distraction, distance, anger, or complete withdrawal.

Both Augie and Sully eventually make further attempts to reach the outside world, scanning radio frequencies and putting out their own messages. Augie is driven primarily by growing concern for Iris and her future as he recognizes signs of his own failing health. Recalling the presence of a weather station with more effective equipment at Lake Hazen, Augie suggests a trip to the lake, originally intending it as a vacation. However, partway through the trip an accident destroys the snowmobile and prevents any return to the observatory. Instead, Augie and Iris set up camp among Lake Hazen’s abandoned tents and supplies. To forestall the disappointment further silence would bring, Augie at first avoids the radio. Instead, he allows himself to enjoy their time on the lake, learning to reconnect with the land and deepening his connection with Iris. He teaches her to fish, and he watches with pride as she imitates his cooking. One night, as he listens for her breathing, he realizes that what he feels is fear for her safety, and he admits to himself that this fear is driven by love.

Meanwhile, Sully struggles to allow herself to connect with her crewmates—particularly Devi, who is struggling with Earth’s silence. When the primary communication satellite is ripped from the ship’s hull, the crew must find a solution to restore their means of communication with Earth. Reenergized, they all jump into repair plans. Sully and Devi are chosen to conduct the final repairs via space walk, and they complete a successful first walk to prepare for final installation. Seven hours into the second walk, Devi and the crew realize that her suit has a carbon dioxide problem and that it has been noticed far too late to return her to the ship. After watching Devi die in open space and then completing the repairs alone, Sully returns to the ship but retreats from the rest of the crew.

As the Aether comes closer to Earth and Augie uses the radio hut to search for life, Augie and Sully make contact. Though they can say little beyond what each had already known, they are nonetheless eager to talk; Sully recognizes in Augie her own desire but inability to connect.

Shortly before the Aether docks with the International Space Station, Augie succumbs to another fever and takes to bed. Iris, he believes, cares for him. As he begins to regain health and consciousness, he finally asks Iris where she came from. Receiving no answer except for a knowing look, Augie finally recognizes that he imagined her. In his isolation, Augie created a companion as well as an opportunity to earn redemption. Accepting this, Augie intends to return to the radio hut one last time, hoping to hear Sully’s voice again. Instead he sees a polar bear—the same one, he believes, that he previously saw at the observatory—dying by the lake. Turning to it, Augie lies besides the animal, embracing it and his own death peacefully.

During Augie’s illness, Sully and the crew dock with a mysteriously abandoned International Space Station. Only one Soyuz reentry pod, with three seats, remains. After drawing straws, Harper, Tal, and Thebes are set to return to Earth, but at the last moment, Thebes declares his intention to stay on board with Ivanov so that Sully can take the third seat. Sully finally accepts her past and her fate, recognizing how everything in her life led to this moment. As she and Harper look at each other, he uses her first name, Iris, for the first time: Sully is the daughter that Augie never met. Feeling “nestled in the cup of an immense cosmic palm as they plummet […] toward the surface of the earth” (252-53), Sully leans into uncertainty and love.