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A Novel
by Yume Kitasei
Book Reviewed by:From the acclaimed author of The Stardust Grail comes the epic tale of two sisters who sail across oceans to find their missing third sister―and Earth's environmental salvation.
In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother.
But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find―and save―her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered.
But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister―or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.
CHAPTER ONE
The day Skipper decides to go and find her oldest sister, Nora, all the mussels are stolen from Gull Gang Rock.
Skipper picks her way along the shore. The rocks are slick with wet seaweed and the retreating ocean tide. Everything gleams in the fading orange-yellow light. Soon it will pour, and she regrets not wearing her rain jacket. She is twenty-two and generally considers herself invulnerable to things as ordinary as weather.
Gull Gang Rock is a particularly large rock jutting out among the waves beneath a ruined wooden pier. Carmen, the middle Shimizu sister, gave it its name when they were younger, based on all the brassy-voiced laughing gulls that hang out there.
Carmen loves naming things. It's her way of claiming ownership, and it's annoying, but the names stick anyway.
For example, Skipper's real name is Rosa, but it's been many years since anyone has called her that. When they started fixing up their boat, Carmen began calling her Skipper as a tease, because it was all...
How far would you go for family? For the Shimizu sisters of Yume Kitasei's brilliant Saltcrop, that answer lies somewhere between oceans, across borders, and through irreversible decisions. This epic explores the height of familial love and the depths of corporate cruelty in a thrilling, character-driven story. Kitasei's skillful handling of limited-perspective narration reveals a lot about each person telling the story. Skipper is a spot-on youngest sister, going into great detail about her hobbies and complaints and skating by what she finds uninteresting. She dwells on her missing sister and passion for sailing, but tries not to think too much about her family trauma. That writing choice makes for upsetting, yet compelling reveals later on when we move to Carmen's perspective on their family. Saltcrop is a masterclass in using point of view to illustrate character traits—and to hit your heart with what wasn't said, as much as what was...continued
Full Review
(636 words)
(Reviewed by Margaret Belford).
In Saltcrop, the Shimizu family has relied on farming to survive for generations, and by extension, on the agricultural corporation Renewal's seeds and anti-blight treatment, Amaranthine. Sisters Carmen and Skipper worry about making enough money to purchase supplies, even as Amaranthine poisons the land. While a competitor exists in the form of EarthWorks, it's clear that Renewal controls the agricultural supply chain in the near-future world of the novel.
Saltcrop's preoccupation with seed monopolies illustrates the real worries of farmers in our world. In the United States, 90% of all soybean seeds are sold by Monsanto, and the company also dominates the market for corn and cotton seeds. In addition to seeds, Monsanto produces ...
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