All the Water in the World (Hardcover)
by Eiren Caffall
A realistic look at what would happen after the Environmental catastrophe of ocean water rise. The book looks at the reality of abandoned cities, left treasures, and social struggles. The book shows the divisions of society are just barely tenuous. That we are just one catastrophe away from collapse of civilization. We would be divided on race, on social income, psychology. Human behavior shows that we will become barbaric, divided by lines of have and have not, on race, and morality. How we survive is finding others, and making anew connections that are not subject to prejudice, and hate.

In Eiren Caffall's haunting debut novel "All the Water in the World," climate fiction meets coming-of-age narrative in a masterfully crafted tale of survival and resilience. Set in a near-future New York City ravaged by climate change, the story follows young Nonie, a remarkable protagonist with an almost supernatural connection to approaching storms. The American Museum of Natural History, dubbed "Amen" by its inhabitants, serves as both sanctuary and symbol – a fortress of knowledge preservation amid environmental collapse.

While the novel's opening chapters require some patience as they establish the unique world and its characters, the narrative gains powerful momentum when a catastrophic superstorm forces Nonie, her sister Bix, their father, and curator Keller to flee their museum refuge. Caffall's decision to alternate between their harrowing journey north and Nonie's memories of life at Amen creates a rich tapestry that reveals not just what was lost, but what remains worth preserving. The author's prose strikes a delicate balance between stark realism and poetic reflection, particularly evident in observations like "Greed and hope aren't opposites. Greed and hope are twins grabbing for the same thing, one in fear and one in faith."
What distinguishes this novel from other entries in the climate fiction genre is its unique perspective through a child's eyes and its focus on cultural preservation. Nonie's voice carries the narrative with a wisdom beyond her years, while never losing the vulnerability of youth facing an unimaginable future. The relationship between Nonie and Bix adds emotional depth, grounding the apocalyptic elements in very human connections. The museum itself becomes a character, representing humanity's desperate attempt to maintain a bridge between "The World As It Was" and what might be salvaged for future generations.

Comparisons to Emily St. John Mandel's "Station Eleven" and Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" are well-earned, as all three works find glimmers of hope in the preservation of culture amid catastrophe. However, Caffall carves out her own territory by making water – in all its forms – a central character. The ocean becomes both destroyer and potential savior, a force that shapes not only the physical landscape but the psychological terrain of the survivors. The author's unflinching portrayal of climate disaster feels unnervingly prescient without falling into didacticism.

Despite dealing with catastrophic events, Caffall manages to infuse the narrative with moments of grace and resilience that feel earned rather than forced. Lines like "You never know in the darkness, who's holding the light" and "A building is just a body through which you live a life. What mattered was the people we found and lost" showcase the author's ability to find profound truth in devastation. While the novel's deliberate early pacing may challenge some readers, the investment pays off handsomely as the story builds to its compelling conclusion.

"All the Water in the World" earns 3.75 stars for its innovative approach to climate fiction, strong character development, and powerful imagery. Thanks St. Martins Press and netgalley for me eARC!

Caffall's first novel sends us into a damaged world, where climate changes continue to escalate. After a series of increasingly horrific storms and other challenges, New York City is considered too fragile to save, but a small community continues to take refuge at the Museum of Natural History (known as Amen). They continue to care for and preserve the remaining exhibits and knowledge even as they work to survive. Nonie, our narrator, is one of the youngest community members, a child whose alignment with the oceans makes her aware not only of approaching storms, but of their severity. The novel begins though as a storm hits Amen beyond any scale they've seen before, breaking the storm gates and drowning the city and most of Amen's residents. Only four survive the initial impact: Nonie, her older sister Bix, her father, and Keller, a fellow curator, and Amen is uninhabitable. The novel proceeds with chapters alternating their hazardous journey to find a new refuge and Nonie's memories of how Amen came to be (and who they lost along the way). It's a grief-streaked but eventually hopeful journey, tense but engaging. The comparisons to Station Eleven, another strangely-hopeful dystopian novel, are completely deserved--I loved them both.

Thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for my free earc in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are all my own.

I struggled to get into this one, but admittedly, dystopian fiction isn’t my forte. My husband, however, has already preordered it. Seems like a great book just not for me.

An unflinching and sparsely emotive look at the inner world of a child living in an apocalyptic NYC, on an earth plagued by massive storms and flooding. This is a deeply character driven story, with vivid world building and literary prose, that although gripping in theme, didn't bring me into as close a connection with the protagonist as I could have been (and needed to be for me to want to know the end of her story). For me, the writing itself kept me reading, rather than my own need to experience the unfolding events along with Nonie, but even that didn't see me to the end of the story.

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall had the potential to be a great book. Unfortunately, the book fell short.

The premise was great. All the glaciers have melted and most of the Earth’s habitants are gone. The book focuses on thirteen-year-old Nonie, who lives with her mother, father, and older sister on the roof of NYC’s American Museum of Natural history. At least until a hypercane (think hurricane but times it by a hundred) wipes out the museum and Nonie and her family escape to find safety up north.

There is no doubt that Caffall is a good writer. However, the writing style was a bit too “poetic” for my liking. I listened to the audiobook and found it difficult to focus on the story, which is not typical for me.

One of the reasons why I like reading speculative fiction/dystopian is to better understand where the world might go wrong and its impact on humanity. All the Water in the World did not delve into the “how” and barely touched on how this family survived. The book just felt like a very long journey without enough depth to keep me hooked.

The audiobook narration was perfectly acceptable. The narrator did a nice job of trying to capture all the voices. Unfortunately, the writing style made her voice seem a bit choppy.

There are so many good speculative fiction books on climate change that are out there. (The Light Pirate is hands down my favorite.) Unfortunately, All the Water in the World isn’t one of them.

💧An action-packed, dystopian, post climate-crisis coming-of-age tale— and I’m here for it! Thank you to @stmartinspress for the sneak peek at this. It’s out tomorrow!

💧 I was under the weather this weekend and read the bulk of this book in one day— which worked out because I actually thought it came out later this month. 🤣 Anyway, this is full of action, compulsive, and with super short chapter it MOVES.

💧 This story centers on Nonie and her family, who are living at a the American Museum of Natural History in NYC in a post-apocalyptic, climate crisis environment. The story is told through a current timeline, as well as through Nonie’s flashbacks, to paint a complete picture of what the family is facing as they decide to leave NYC for the unknown of upstate.

💧 I highly recommend this to anyone who likes:
- coming-of-age stories
- climate fiction
- action stories
- dystopian tales

💧 Not only is this super entertaining, but it’ll get your wheels turning about what exactly our world will look like in the future. Part of me wants to say it could have been a touch longer with some parts more fleshed out, but in all reality, it was also kind of fun that it moved so quickly! Again, this is out tomorrow. Will you be adding it to your TBR?

Probably one of the best books you will read this year.

In a not-so-distant future, climate change has caused the earth's glaciers to melt and ocean levels to rise all over the world. Norah "Nonie", her older sister Beatrice "Bix", and their parents fled their New York City apartment in a horrible storm, seeking shelter in the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), or "Amen", where their mother used to work in The World As It Was. Together with other former employees of the museum and their families, they try to preserve the artifacts of the museum while building a community on its roof in a nearly deserted city threatened both by storms and lawlessness. When a superstorm causes the city's floodgates to finally give in, leaving New York flooded, Nonie and a handful of other survivors are forced to leave Amen and try to make their way north on the water.

The novel opens with the superstorm that drives them from Amen, yet continuously flashes back to Nonie's life at the museum, all the while making the water - a threat and a promise, a resource, a habitat, a necessity, a danger, a means of transportation, an essential part of our human bodies - its very own character.

"All the Water in the World" is both a tense survival and adventure story - the danger just as often in human shape as in the form of an environmental disaster - as well as an incredibly poetic contemplation of the cornerstones of society and its frailties, the value of knowledge and science, and the glimmers of hope and humanity found even in a world on the brink of collapse.

Reminiscent of Emily St. John Mandel's "Station Eleven" and yet wholly unique, this apocalyptic and dystopian novel proves both thought-provoking and devastating in its timeliness and haunting in its starkly beautiful writing. "All the Water in the World" was one of my favorite reads in a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"All the Water in the World" is set to be published on January 7, 2025.

I struggled with this book in the beginning. Really struggled, to a point that I almost DNF'd it. The chapters alternate from past to present; sometimes past and present are intermingled in a single chapter. And that was clunky. It didn't flow well at all, almost like trying to watch two movies simultaneously.
However, I'm glad I plugged through, because the second two-thirds of the book was wonderful.

The shift happened for me once Nonie and her family leave the museum and set out to find a new location. It's a fascinating premise: the world as we currently know it doesn't exist, replaced with a dystopian free-for-all following a climate disaster. No formal government, small communities formed wherever people can find a semi-stable location and a way to produce food. Some of this communities are welcoming, and some want nothing to do with strangers. The family's path was brutal, and ultimately tragic, but I appreciated that, through it all, the author was able to maintain a glimmer of hope and optimism for what they still felt they could accomplish and attain.

At times it felt a bit preachy about climate change; not overly so, but it was still there. And while I appreciate that the pace eventually picked up, it was brutally slow until then. Nonie's character was wonderful, and I really enjoyed how her relationship with her sister evolved over time. Overall, this falls somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars for me.

Climate change is real. One can debate the scientific origins, impact of human activities, and what can be done about it. Regardless, it is here and has been happening. All the Water in the World explores a not too distant future where weather changes have changed the world as we know it into the world as it was. The cause is irrelevant. The effects are disastrous. Superstorms and the resultant water impact is our apocalypse. Told in the voice of Nonie, she and her older sister Bix are born into a changing world and have never experienced the world as it was, only the stories of their parents and found family living in New York's Museum of Natural History. Weather never gives up, and their lives are now going to take them on a harrowing journey to find some semblance of safety. What will they loose and what will they gain as the water encroaches.

This novel definitely has both Station Eleven and Parable of the Sower vibes. It is a tense read often full of sadness, but despite this, it is full of the hopes and dreams and fears of youth. For a dystopian tale, it somehow leaves you feeling happy.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Bleak beauty, stark and gory like The Vaster Wilds, but more relatable and filled with love. The end of things is cruel, seems like the biggest upset, until you overcome it and face a new challenge.

New York is my home. My place. I connected to every place mentioned in this novel — found myself situated with those dead and dying. Understood the depictions of a body unlike the person you remember, as soon as life leaves it.

If you can’t handle bitter truths or stomach sensitive topics, then this book may not be for you. But I’ve lived through similar pain, and I see a future where we are forced to adapt due to our ignorance. I’ve lived so many futures through sci fi novels and dystopian films.

To me, this book is everything.

Thank you #NetGalley for an ARC.

I requested All the Water in the World partly to stretch my reading repertoire, as I rarely read science fiction. It appealed to me as a dystopian, climate change novel, and overall, I would recommend it for readers who enjoy atmospheric, end of the world novels. As someone for whom the genre is not my typical fare, I struggled at first with the author's transition from 'the world as it is' to 'the world as it was' without warning, but once I became accustomed to the time flips, the story began to make sense, and I became engrossed in the adventures of the characters as they journeyed to the farm in the North.

The story is narrated by the youngest member of the party that leaves the AMNH for greener pastures during a catastrophic hurricane (not the first the group has endured). The encounters with other groups of survivors, both in past reminiscences and the present day, are filled with tension and were often frightening. The entire concept of the novel, climate change resulting in extreme floods that immerse most of civilization under water, and cause the formation of tribes of survivors that are wary of each other and hoard the scarce resources that exist, is in and of itself terrifying. Nonie's narration, however, was somewhat calming and kept the horror of their situation at bay. The author also kept most of the situations brief and not terribly descriptive, so I did not feel especially involved in the story emotionally.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital ARC of All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall. The opinions in this review are my own.

This is not the first time I've started the new year with a book about a dystopian future thanks to climate change. But this debut novel managed to be filled with hope despite the many odds against the characters. Narrated by Nonie, a young teenage girl, the chapters are short, giving the feeling of how a child would feel in the circumstances Nonie is experiencing. This is a story of family - both that which we are born into and those which we make. It's also the story of what becomes important when everything can be lost - what do we save? The novel is full of heartbreak, adventure, terror, and survival. And hope. Hope that we can always improve the world and our circumstances.

"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."

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

In this speculative literary apocalypse tale, a young girl must grapple with the meaning of hope and the purpose of humanity it in a world still reeling from its own destruction. The book opens with thirteen-year-old Nonie living in a small community on the roof of New York City's Museum of Natural History, rare survivors of the storms, floods, and pandemics that have ravaged the city. As curators and scientists, their mission is to preserve the museum's artifacts and knowledge against civilization's dissolution, and while their life is difficult, it is home to Nonie.

But when a massive storm destroys the building, Nonie and her family must flee the city. They're looking for a new home on higher ground, along the way meeting dangers - natural and, especially, human - as well as unexpected sweetness and support.

All the Water in the World is beautifully written, but it is not a light or easy read. Instead it is haunting; propulsive; terrifying. As the plot unfolds, the immediate horror of Nonie's reality recedes a bit, making room for the author's thoughts about social organization. These feel a bit disconnected from the more visceral side of the story, but Nonie's narration holds everything together. None of the story's events, even the end of the world, are the point. The point is Nonie and her unfolding understanding of the web of relationships that surround her and what it means, in her time and in all times, to be human.

My review is more 2.5 stars to begin with. I think my review about this book may lean more towards the time of which I've read this than the story itself. It's a truly interesting dystopian novel and I don't want to discourage the author. For myself, it's a difficult genre for me to get into, but I wanted to take a chance on this. There were moment where I had to go back and reread the scenes of what was present moment and the past moment. The action of storms being severe and almost like titans was gripping. I did struggle with connecting with the characters, sometimes getting lost in names of who is who. Although I leave this as my thoughts and review, I recommend those who are fans of dystopian genre to read this one and develop an opinion for themselves. Unfortunately for me, I just had a difficult time getting into it. Thank you for the gifted e-book copy.

A dystopian thriller that starts on the roof of the New York Museum of Natural History in waterlogged New York City. When a water storm breaches the City’s floodwalls, Nonie and her family and friends must escape NYC in an old native canoe via the Hudson River. Adventures and mishaps await this dystopian Band of travels.

This book is beautifully written, filled with thrilling, page turning adventure. It is not my usual fiction genre – nonetheless, I adored it – beautifully written with page turning excitement. Finished the book in one day. I highly recommend to all Readers - anyone that loves a good story.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an early read in exchange for a fair review. Five stars!

I wasn't sure I wanted to jump into a dystopian-type novel at this point, but I'm glad I picked up All the Water in the World. The premise is a bit terrifying - the world as we know it is now flooded, with Norah and her family ensconced in the American Museum of Natural History. However, a drastic storm hits, and Norah, her sister, her father, and their friend Keller must escape north to safety, all while avoiding the terrors of the world, including dangerous citizens, wild dogs, and more storms. This story grapples with loss in many ways - that of our friends and family, the creatures of the world, and society itself. It's easy to imagine the East Coast swallowed by drastic weather, which makes this novel even more terrifying. However, the writing style and flipping from past to present made this story fly by.

This book reads like water, a meandering brook that occasionally has rapids, that you're not exactly sure where it started and where it's going to end.

It is atmospheric; I could feel the cold damp seeping through the pages as I read. The characters are interesting, especially the autistic-coded MC, but not fully fleshed out. I never felt like i really got to know them.

This book felt like dipping into vignettes from a larger story instead of one cohesive unit that built from start to end. Enjoyable but meandering and slightly unfinished. 3.75 stars.

Nonie and her community are in the middle of at least a decade long apocalypse where the glaciers have melted, likely because global warming, sea levels have risen, and whole cities have been swallowed up by the water. New York City has been protected by a wall and floodgates but a terrible storm has hit them and the community needs to get out.

It took me about 5 or so chapters to actually start to understand the story and the characters and what exactly was happening but once I was in it, I was invested. The first half of the book felt a little slow to be but the second half picked up a good bit and a few of the plot points had me on the edge of my seat. The thrill of waiting to see what would happen next made me binge this book in a few days. I do feel like the very end, when they reached their destination, felt a little rushed and I would have liked a little more of that part fleshed out but it was overall an interesting read. Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

I absolutely loved this literary climate fiction told from the perspective of Nonie, a 13-year old girl who has lived on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History for eight years, with her father, and sister Bix and a group of museum employees who used their keys to get in when the first big storm came. Nonie and Bix's mother died in the interim from the Time Before they had to evacuate their apartment and took refuge in the museum, which they call Amen. Nonie is clearly on the autism spectrum, as her family all said that her "brain wasn't wired like other people's" and she admits to not understanding how other people feel sometimes.

Nonie understands water and seems to be able to feel barometric changes when a storm is headed their way. The narrative shifts back and forth from the current time, when they have to leave Amen, and The Time Before or The World As It Is. Nonie and Bix, along with their Father, and Keller, an entomologist who has been on the roof of Amen with them, escape in a canoe saved from the indigenous Eastern Woodlands exhibit. They travel through what remains of Manhattan, up the Hudson. They're headed for a farm upstate that had been in their Mother's family for decades.

Nonie keeps a Logbook of water, her most prized possession, kept in oilcloth in her go bag. They encounter both kind people and dangerous ones, some who you can't tell which they are until it's almost too late. But Nonie has heard of a ship called the Sally Ride where scientists study the changed climate and she is determined to get there.

Caffall's writing is beautiful and full of wisdom. Nonie and Bix and Keller are great characters. I highly recommend it. And it was completely weight-neutral-no description of anyone's body size at all.