ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD by Eiren Caffall

5 stars

In this powerfully compelling dystopian tale of climate change, toxic floodwaters have taken over much of the mainland, crops have failed, the army has move inland, the U.S. president takes refuge in an ocean liner offshore, and waves of refugees are constantly on the move. A few folks who worked at the American Museum of Natural History had keys and as water breached New York Ciity’s floodwalls, they raced over to a rooftop refuge behind the locked museum doors to escape what eventually became known as the “Old City.”

The Museum (“AMNH”) gets abbreviated to being pronounced AMEN, in respect and awe of the shelter it gave them. Nonie comes to AMEN as a young teen along with her older sibling Bix along with father and her mother who worked there. The small group of survivors takes on as their conservationist mission to save, and to catalog in a Museum Logbook, as many of the collections as possible. Nonie creates her own Water LogBook – cataloguing all the storms, floods, droughts, and surges. Nonie and Bix learn to hunt in the above water parts of Central Park, escape wild roaming dogs, and avoid “The Lost” which are all the displaced refugees seeking shelter and potable water. Of note, the AMEN community lets no Lost in their doors out of fear and protection of the Collection from being ransacked.

And it turns out that through a series of tragic events including a water borne Dengue type virus and a “hypercane” – a huge leap up from a hurricane, that day arrives and Nonie, Bix, their father, and another man Keller embark in a Museum display canoe out onto the toxic waters of the Hudson to head up north to a farmland belonging to her mother in western Massachusetts that has held out as a possible escape if they ever need to flee the museum. Their treacherous trek, filled with both physical hazards, death, dangerous people, and a deeply troubled walled town, has them fleeing to see if a second refuge can be found.

You get swept up into the story and its fast-moving waters and hold your breath to see who will survive and to glimpse a glimmer of a future out there in which humanity might once again thrive.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.