The Vivisectors

by Missouri Williams · 2026

The Vivisectors is a surreal, allegorical romance set in a crumbling university town overrun by vegetation. A reclusive graduate student, Agathe, spends her days propping up a fraudulent professor until a controversy forces her to befriend a contrarian student, Adam. The novel explores power and privilege between academics and a rogue fraternity of gardeners, weaving gothic angularity, dark humor, and icy suspense into a love story that reflects humanity’s contradictions. Long‑listed for the 2026 Booker Prize, it has been praised for its gothic style, intellectual ambition, and unsettling vision of a decaying academic world.