Kathleen B

In Awake in the Floating City, Susanna Kwan gives us a quiet, intimate story of a woman haunted by the loss of her mother as she cares for a 130-year old neighbor.

San Francisco, flooded by sea rise, comes to life in these pages, but so does San Francisco of the past. As Bo receives Mia's stories, she discovers within herself a desire to memorialize the people, places, and events now buried underwater. Reading along, we, too, are stirred by the awareness of human history upon which we stand.

This is a vivid portrait of a place, of the beauty and pain that come with the process of aging and death, and of the human spirit. Like Station Eleven, another book set in a post-apocalyptic world, Awake in the Floating City is a story of relationship, and, ultimately, of hope and beauty. Readers with an art background will find certain portions of this book particularly rewarding.