All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall
Published by St. Martin's
Publication date: January 7, 2025
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Dystopian, Suspense
The time has come. Thanks to climate change coastal cities are being abandoned for those further inland. In Manhattan, a small group of people has stayed behind, creating an encampment on top of the American Museum of Natural History in an effort to protect and document the treasure trove of man’s history it contains. Nonie is the daughter of two of the researchers working there and she relays their story in All the Water in the World, an elegiac novel about the time after the climate apocalypse.
Although it’s been years since the power grid failed and violence surged, leaving most of the city deserted the group living on top of AMEN (as they call it) know they’re working against the clock. The island’s floodwall is unlikely to withstand another hypercane—the next level of hurricane, with winds topping 100mphs and surges high enough to submerge buildings. Nonie lives in this world with her father and older sister, Bix. She is an unusual girl who “feels” water knowing not just when it will rain, but where water is and is not. Sadly, even her gift isn’t enough to prepare them for the storm that breaches the island forcing them to flee without most of their carefully prepared provisions, weapons, and supplies. Instead, the three are joined by one other man as they escape in a canoe used by the Indigenous people centuries ago.
For the group in All the Water the danger they’re escaping is no less threatening then where they’re heading. They need to take the Hudson upriver where they hope a family farm in the Berkshires is still safe. But the trip itself is fraught as America has succumbed to unchecked racism and viruses. They don’t know what they’ll encounter, but their companion Keller is Black and the girls are teenagers. All prime targets for angry men living by martial law.
Author Eiren Caffall subtly plants the novel with these types of seeds, but All the Water is not a traditional thriller. It falls more along the lines of an outstanding work of apocalyptic fiction, Station Eleven.There is the natural progression of the journey to safety, but while there are very real, dark events this is more the story of one young woman and her unique experience of the liminal space between the death of one world order and the birth of another. Her life has been spent in nature learning healing plants from harmful, navigating without modern technology, and other survival techniques we’ve long since forgotten. Her survival has relied mainly on being attuned to nature and now she’s entering an environment where an instinct for human behavior is equally important.
I’m drawn to stories of those who risk their lives trying to save history. It may be the recent fires in California and my own love of and belief in the written word and how the past must be preserved, but All the Water in the World struck me deeply. The novel evoked a myriad of emotions, challenging the concept of what is “safety” and truths like our reliance on technology for our survival. That all of this comes encased in prose that is concise and evocative is why I loved this somber novel.
*I realize dystopian reading is not for everyone right now, but it’s worth noting All the Water in the World is ultimately hopeful.*
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*I received a free copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.*
I’m considering this despite the harrowing events described. I so love Station Eleven .
I agree about Station Eleven. I almost feel like I need to read it again even if it seems counterproductive for my mental health right now! This one is smaller and slower. I think you would enjoy it.