All the Water in the World
In a near-empty New York City after the glaciers melted, Nonie and her family have taken refuge on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. Most of the inhabitants include former employees, devoted to the preservation of the collections and history. When a storm breaches the flood walls, Nonie and her family escape by boat, hoping to reach a rumored family home to the north. The journey is dangerous, and they encounter differing ideas of what survival and community mean, forcing them to decide how their future looks.
In describing this book to friends, I found myself saying, “It’s like The Road, but on water.” And it very much is; the journey and the future feel similar, without quite the level of bleakness. From the characters determined to preserve history and legacy (inspired here by real curators in Iraq and Leningrad who did the same during times of war) to the ways that people form communities, however imperfect, this may not be a feel-good climate read, but it is a hopeful one.
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Publisher’s Description
In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.
All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they’ve saved.
Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most – love and work, community and knowledge – will survive.