Somerset native brings new voices to the table with sci-fi novel 'A Fractured Infinity'

How far would you go to save the person you love most?

That’s the question at the core of “A Fractured Infinity,” the new novel by Nathan Tavares.

Tavares, who was born in Fall River and grew up in Somerset, takes readers on a journey through the multi-verse with one man’s increasingly desperate efforts to save the man he loves.

“A Fractured Infinity,” out on Dec. 6 from Titan Books, centers on filmmaker Hayes Figueiredo, who is struggling to finish a documentary about his late best friend, when handsome physicist Yusuf Hassan shows up, claiming that Hayes is the key to understanding the Envisioner, a device that has mysteriously shown up in their world and that can predict the future.

Hayes is taken to a top-secret research facility, where he learns how to work with the Envisioner, under the watchful eye of Dr. Kaori Nakamori, who seems to know a lot more than she lets on.

Hayes soon discovers that the Envisioner was sent to his world by an alternate version of himself from another reality.

As Hayes and Yusuf fall in love, tragedy strikes and Hayes gets the Envisioner to fix it. But by saving Yusuf, he has unknowingly set off a chain of catastrophic, and even apocalyptic events.

What happens next is a story of a love that crosses the multi-verse, as Hayes finds a way to try to save Yusuf. The question is: how high a price is Hayes willing to pay?

Tavares combines epic romance with showcasing his deep love for and knowledge of science fiction, which he said he’s always been a big fan of.

“From ‘X-Men’ cartoons as a kid, to superhero TV shows, to the Goosebumps books I couldn’t get enough of, I’ve always been a big fan. For a while, people seemed to look down on others who read or wrote sci-fi, but I’m glad that’s changed over the last several years,” Tavares said.

The imagery throughout the novel is rich and evocative, from “the juicy lemon wheel of the sun” in the beginning, to the later tarnished resplendence of a once-lavish hotel on the moon.

Love of writing began at an early age

Tavares said he’s always wanted to be a writer and was encouraged in his creative writing pursuits as a young kid, mentioning especially supportive teachers like Mrs. Morgenstern, Mrs. Gosson, and Mrs. Taylor.

“I remember Mrs. Taylor telling me something like, ‘You have a responsibility to develop your writing in college and beyond,’ which really inspired me to pursue writing as a discipline that I had to work really hard on, and not just a hobby on the side.”

Bringing other voices to the table

The love between Hayes and Yusuf, which is the heart and soul of the book, isn’t something Tavares saw in the books he read as a kid.

“There are no queer people anywhere in those stories. In worlds with new technologies or with aliens or magic or whatever, zero queer people. Kids grow up thinking they’re freaks, or undeserving, or that they have to hide themselves because they don’t see people like them represented in the media.”

Tavares acknowledged a sense of responsibility to bring other voices to the table, and to craft the kind of story that celebrates queer indentities and underrepresented voices.

“Growing up in the '90s, most of the time queer people in the media were either miserable, or ended up dead, or both. I grew up never thinking I would be legally married to the man I love. So I knew it was important to write a book where being queer wasn’t some obstacle the characters had to deal with. It was something to celebrate. The characters have messy lives because people in general have messy lives, and that doesn’t necessarily stem from their sexuality.”

He also thought about the kind of book that he’d want to read.

“I wanted to read about queer people having full, rich lives. I wanted to read capital G-A-Y books that were funny and sexy and bittersweet. I didn’t want token representation that just felt like a gender-swap of a straight relationship or something. We need more stories filled with queer characters that aren’t just coming out stories — though those have their place too — or big trauma-fests.”

Growing up in Somerset, Tavares was “really involved” in the arts when he attended what was then Somerset High School, taking part in marching band, chorus, orchestra, and the drama club. He also spent a lot of time in Fall River, where his family attended St. Michael’s Church, and Tavares also worked for a time at what was the Waterstreet Café.

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He credits his family for supporting him from a young age as well:

“My dad used to make up stories for me and my two sisters when he took us on walks around the neighborhood, and then I got really into mythology and superhero TV shows, which got me into sci-fi and fantasy books. My older sister and twin sister are also big readers and writers, and we supported each other with our writing dreams our whole lives.”

Support from his Portuguese-American family

The support of his family, as well as Tavares’ Portuguese-American heritage, would later come into play when he wrote “A Fractured Infinity.”

The book began as what Tavares thought would be a short story in 2015, but it was in 2019 that the book really began to take shape, and it was while writing this story that Tavares’ heritage came into play.

“Once the idea of Hayes started coming to me, and how he became this really exaggerated, parallel version of myself, I thought about what it was like growing up in a Portuguese community,” Tavares said. “I decided to fold that into Hayes’s backstory because growing up in a Portuguese-American community is just something I’ve never read about.”

Tavares’ Portuguese-American heritage is present in Hayes, and in the story of Hayes’ mother, which Tavares said is a tribute to the women in his family, like his maternal grandmother, who was their rock. He also credits his mother and aunts as “strong, incredible, nurturing people.”

He credits his father and both of his grandfathers as well, “but when it came time to writing about Hayes’s mom, the character really became a big thank-you letter to my mom, and the women in my family.”

Tavares had lost his job at the Improper Bostonian magazine in 2019 and said he was in “a pretty rough mental health patch” at the time the novel was coming together. He’s managed depression and anxiety for most of his life, and his therapist at the time “encouraged me to think about how it seemed like a lot of the pressure I put on myself came from this, like, fictitious perfect version of myself that always heckled me.”

He started thinking about a character who was also heckled by a version of himself, and that character became Hayes.

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The book also took shape when Tavares started thinking about the things he loved about his comfort sci-fi movies, like “Contact,” “Arrival,” “Interstellar,” and “The Fountain.”

It was during this time, while he was taking his dog out for walks, that Tavares started thinking, “alright, if I’m going to write another book, I have to go into this with zero expectations of publication, and just write something I really love.”

Tavares hopes when readers pick up “A Fractured Infinity” that “people connect to the characters and are hopefully moved along the way. Even if the characters don’t necessarily act and look like them.”

“A Fractured Infinity” is available at your local bookshop and everywhere books are sold starting Dec. 6.

Herald News/Taunton Daily Gazette copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached at kfontes@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Somerset native Nathan Tavares debuts new sci-fi novel