Sil and her mother are refugees living on an island that has
been partially destroyed by flooding.
News comes in the form of an anonymous radio correspondent called the
Drowned City Dispatcher. When Sil’s Aunt
Ena passes away, Sil’s mother slips seamlessly into Ena’s job as their building
superintendent for the Morningside, a high-rise whose penthouse is occupied by
a mysterious woman with three huge dogs.
Sil’s mother also moonlights as a salvage diver, and there is plenty to
salvage. While Sil’s mother is very
secretive about their past life, Ena has regaled Sil with magical tales, and
Sil feels compelled to investigate to find out if they are true. She enlists the help of Mila, another young
girl who lives in the building, and Lewis May, a former superintendent of the
building who dubs Sil “Snoopy.” The
problem with this book is not the writing, the characters, or the dystopian
plot; it just moves along too slowly. I
think I dozed through some important pages and then had to reread them after I
finished the novel. Also, a strand of
magical realism permeates the novel, and I am generally not a fan, although
some authors handle it better than others.
Here it just robs the climate change warning of the seriousness it
deserves.
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