Continuing in the tradition of his earlier YA novel Ship Breaker, Bacigalupi transposes the harsh reality of today’s refugees from climate change to a future United States. It’s sobering to realize the horrors in this novel are likely happening right now to people in places where no journalists bother to report from.
Rising temperatures has devastated the US South and West. States have de-facto seceded, closing their borders to refugees from Texas and Arizona. Phoenix is #downthetubes as states with more senior rights to water are ruthlessly enforcing their claims, sending “water knives” to destroy dams and water treatment plants, forcing entire cities to try to move elsewhere for the very basics of life.
In his previous novel The Windup Girl the scenario was life after peak oil. While great, that novel took a leap from our world to the future without really explaining how things got so bad. The scenario in this book is more terrifying - me may never run out of oil but we may run out of potable water.