PINK SLIME by Fernanda Trias

The title refers to the nickname of Meatrite, a mystery meat product that is providing sustenance to a region in the midst of a pandemic, caused by red algae on the ocean.  When the wind blows, its deadly spread of the algae forces everyone to stay indoors, including the unnamed narrator who is taking care of a boy named Mauro with an eating disorder.  His syndrome causes him to be eternally hungry, and the narrator cannot leave him alone, as he will eat anything he can get his hands on, including inedible items like cotton balls.  Mauro’s wealthy parents leave him, along with a hefty supply of food, at the narrator’s apartment for months at a time.  Although the narrator tells her mother that she plans to move to the safety of Brazil, she lingers, possibly for the sake of Mauro, possibly in order to continue to visit her ex-husband, Max, who has been exposed to the red wind but had a chronic rather than an acute fatal response to it.  In fact, all three characters are lingering—Mauro in the narrator’s care, Max in the “Clinics” where he is not well enough to leave, and the narrator, who is stuck in a stasis that is not sustainable. This novel belongs to the genre now dubbed “cli-fi” for climate change fiction.  Rain is non-existent, and only when the fog rolls in is it safe to be outside.  Power outages are frequent, and phone service is spotty.  Water doesn’t seem to be an issue, so thank heavens for that, but this is a world that is becoming uninhabitable.  The fish are dead, and the birds have disappeared.  This scenario does not seem that farfetched.