In this cli-fi, an artist refuses to leave her home in San Francisco even though the city is being drowned in order to tend to a cranky 130 year old in her last days.

Bo has lived her entire life in San Francisco, and even though the city is now flooded, the rain never stops, almost everyone she knows has left, and her mom was swept away in a storm surge… she just can’t bring herself to go. This broken city still feels like home. But just as she’s half-heartedly preparing to leave, a mysterious note slips under her door—from 130-year-old Mia, asking Bo to become her caretaker.

Suddenly, Bo has a reason to stay.

Mia is prickly and particular, but as the two spend time together, a quiet bond begins to form. Mia shares stories from her past and what the city once was, and when her health begins to decline, Bo turns to her art to honor Mia’s life and preserve the memories of a world that’s disappearing.

I really enjoyed the dystopian feel of a flooded San Francisco paired with such an intimate, personal story. The exploration of grief, memory, and how loss affects creativity was powerful. It’s a slow and thoughtful read, but the character development is rich and rewarding. In the end, it’s a quietly beautiful story that sticks with you.

This slow burn story explores human nature, identity and relationships. A thought-provoking and emotional speculative fiction.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #AwakeintheFloatingCity

In an all-too-believable future, San Francisco has flooded so much that most of the population has left and the remaining people live on the top floors of high rises, with commerce on the roofs. Bo is an artist who has stopped creating until she becomes the caregiver of a prickly elderly lady in the same building. As Bo becomes fond of her dying neighbor, her creativity reasserts itself and she designs a major multi-media installation. I found that the plot developed slowly, and there was much more information about Bo's artistic process than I could absorb or care about. Readers interested in the prospect of rising waters in urban areas should check out All the Water in the World, by Eiren Caffall.

Awake in the Floating City is a story of a woman torn between two choices: to stay in the city slowly being engulfed by water, where her mother disappeared during a storm, or move abroad with what remains of her family to try to find a more successful life.

The story is based in a reality not far off from our own but stretched by science fiction. The biggest difference is the human longevity. It seems to be quite normal for a person to live well into the mid-hundred ages in the world of the floating city. 130, 160, not unheard of.

This novel is quite brilliant. There are many almost abstract ideas layered into a very straightforward story.

Bo is a caregiver for the very young or very old. She finds a new client just as she's about to leave the city for good, looking for any excuse to stay in case her mother miraculously returns. She is also an artist, but stopped her art long ago. Through this client, Mia, she is confronted with humanity in a way she's almost forgotten. In a way, her broken spirit begins a renewal process. She finds a level of acceptance for herself, and the world around her.

Through Bo's experiences in this story, you will find yourself pondering the deeper ideas of family bonds, tradition, culture, aging, immigration, relationships with others, adapting to climate changes, art, and the meaning of life itself. It's not that the story has its own ideas on these topics, it somehow skillfully evokes the hard thinking from the reader, seemingly without effort.

I'm quite impressed with Susanna Kwan, and will be looking forward to her next novel.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This novel is quite slow-moving, which for the story it's telling would have been appropriate and even required. In some chapters I even liked the slowness. Don't get me wrong, i love introspective stories and non-linear narratives, but I think the slowness I'm talking about here might also have been the main culprit of why I'd been unable to connect with the characters. I liked the premise though, and Bo is compelling enough to make me stay for a bit longer, which is why halfway through instead of DNFing this book i simply skimmed it. I like the ending, it ties Bo's navel-gazing together (although let's be real, her navel-gazing has been going on the same circles throughout the novel anyway).

I think if you're either a) patient in engaging with introspective stories; b) gracious enough to find circular/obsessive introspection compelling enough; c) don't mind slower narrative structures; or d) all of the above, you may find yourself enjoying this one in very specific places. i was in the d) all of the above boat and am indeed able to enjoy specific parts only but unfortunately i ran out of patience, graciousness, and endurance towards the middle. if you have very consistent energy levels you may even find yourself enjoying the entire novel. maybe when i'm retired i'll pick this back up, but lbr, in this economy that may never happen

Thank you NetGalley and Pantheon for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

There is definitely an audience for this book who will LOVE it, but it was not really the book for me. Far too slow-paced and repetitive, and the main character was frustrating as all get out.

The writing was solid enough overall -- some lovely, poignant lines regarding just... humanity... grief... processing things... etc.

It did read as a bit airy/disconnected, for my preference.

Bo kind of drove me crazy. Most of the book she had no agency in her own life -- things were just happening to her and she was letting them happen. The whole thing with her cousin coming to get her and her bailing last minute.... ?! And then later with the birthday party?! And then later with her cousin AGAIN?!?! I kind of started to hate her a little bit toward the end, not gonna lie. She was wildly frustrating for me.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.
This was a very thought-provoking climate-catastrophe fiction. Much of San Francisco is deep underwater; people struggle to survive on upper floors and roofs of buildings; our main character is an artist who lost her mother a while ago and has struggled with moving on. She receives a plea to become a caretaker of a 130-year-old woman who has no family nearby, and struggles to do this job well, try to return to doing art, trying to decide whether to move where it is "safe" and what that actually means. I loved the clifi aspects of this, but my favorite was the meditation on what it means to be a caregiver. This part really resonated with me. I think this is a debut novel? Good work, and I will be watching for more.

I'm generally a fan of dystopian and/or cli-fi novels, so I was excited to get my hands on this book. In the flooded city of San Francisco those who won't or can't leave make a live for themselves living on the upper stories of skyscrapers, connecting them together by bridges instead of roads. Young struggling artist Bo takes on a home care assistant position with Mia, an elderly woman in her building, a relationship that becomes increasingly important to each of them.

What I liked: the multi-generational friendship between Bo and Mia -- it was touching and realistic. The memories of a city and its inhabitants inspiring art and creative process. The resilience of the people still living in San Francisco - the market vendors, the young families, the librarian.

What didn't work for me: I never really felt connected to the primary characters, making this a book I had trouble wanting to pick up. It was a much more character-driven plot and for me (personally) I would have liked more information about the dystopian world they were in. Some of the dystopian elements never quite made sense or were explained -- why was Mia so old (i.e. why were humans living so long); why were people still living in a city that was crumbling (what happened to the rest of the world and where was any help); what's with these mushroom walls in their houses and all the things around foods hard to get (why exactly is San Francisco a city that's sort of been abandoned? There's obviously boats). I felt that the plot got too in the weeds with Bo's artistic process and how she created what she created -- too technical. Mia's declining health was just quite depressing to read, with a lot of detail about the parts of her body that were starting to fail and her frailty as the book went on. I think this is a trigger warning for anyone sensitive about the decline of a elderly person (i.e. hospice). I also found Eddie's character a bit strange -- his relationship with Bo; it was missing something for me.

So all in all, when I have to weigh up the things I liked and didn't like about the book I came out sort of neutral on it? If you're looking for a true dystopian novel, perhaps look elsewhere. If you're looking for a touching story about two women making a life in a city that has been forgotten, this may be a book for you.

Waiting for Godot meets Silent Spring.

I was intrigued by the basic premise of this book, a San Francisco flooded due to climate change and the remaining people making a remnant civilization in the tops of the towering buildings. I understood the main characters reluctance to leave due her missing mother and because of the relationship she builds with an dying elderly woman in her building. Yet, I grew frustrated with the lack of plot motion. In many ways it was like waiting for Godot, the promises to leave and yet staying. Kwan is an expert at description and the small tasks that make up a life. But somehow, the situation, the characters, and the story just didn't resonate with me.

Awake In The Floating City by Susanna Kwan, This book is about Artist bo who has lost her passion for her art, since the death of her mother, until she starts taking care of Ms. Mya. they live in the future time while medical advancement has made it possible for Miss Maya to live well over 150 IDK exactly how old but through Miss Mya’s stories bow gets inspired and says she’s going to make something about her life. At the same time we get to learn about the place they love and don’t want to leave a floating city who most are moving away from. Bo cousin pleads with her to leave but she doesn’t want to and now that she has started doing art again and through her friendship with Maya she starts to see she may have a lot of life left but will she finish her peace before Miss Maya expires and will she make it to Canada to start again? this book was not only original it was truly interesting in a book I absolutely recommend. I have found myself reading a lot of literary fiction lately and this one set in a futuristic universe is absolutely my favorite. I loved those casual attitude although I am not going to lie I could not picture the art she was creating and although I’m sure some people did by myself did not but I’m sure it was pretty. Having said that I think this is a great book and one everyone should read. #NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview, #SusannaKwan, #AwakeInTheFloatingCity,

An achingly beautiful meditation on life - what we do with it, who we spend it with, and the experiences that make it up. This made me nostalgic and appreciative of all the mundanity and wonder of everyday living.

This is a slow-paced, character centered novel. That's not a bad thing, in my opinion, and it gave me time to savor the little details and the growing friendship between Bo and Mia.

The setting was haunting and sad but also beautiful, seeing people persist in the wake of catastrophic flooding in San Francisco.

I recently lost my grandmother, so reading about Bo's attempts to memorialize Mia and her life felt especially tender. Anyone who's ever lost a grandparent they were close to will appreciate the book's deliberations on memory and honoring those we love.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I was not sure about this book going into it what it was based off the description but I ended up loving it. This book grabbed me from the beginning and took me in a journey that I needed to go on. This story is about relationships in a world that is not what it used to be. It is a story of grief and love and life that pulls you in and pulls at the heartstrings. I was here for it all. I read a NetGalley copy of this book.

This was such an interesting story, I thought it would be focused on the environment and the disaster, but it was so focused on characters and their stories and that was wonderful.

"It was the practice of remembering."

The lovely flow of Kwan's prose makes this book read like the flow of water. Like the brushstrokes of watercolor on an artist's easel or the gurgle of a mountain stream. I wish I had the words to explain how beautiful this book is.

"She listened to the hum beyond the rain. She dreamed of color."

Bo is such an endearing character. Her love of family, which also sometimes feels like drowning. Her patient care for a person she just met that causes ripples in the storyline. Her artist's heart that ebbs and flows like the sea itself. Such gorgeous water imagery throughout the story.

"Project a face over a set of faces - that was one way to bring people together. Or a world over a world to collapse the passage of time."

The city may be drowning but Bo is surviving, and I think that's the perfect description of life for all of us these days.

"She'd been alone, thought herself invisible. But somehow someone had found her. And strangely, startlingly, needed her."

As Bo's life slowly starts to change, the reader is treated to a peek inside the artist's mind and process. Like the layers of acetate and images, we are given a glimpse of life, staggeringly vast and beautiful.

And then, on an entirely personal level, there's this:

"I guess ... I guess I've been missing my mother."
"Hmm ... You wanted her for longer."
"Yes."
"But you get the time you get."
... She could still feel her mother in the room.

I like near future fiction books and I thought I would enjoy Awake in the Floating City. It has a good concept following constant rain and flooding which drives daily life to the top of buildings. I just couldn’t get into it though and I ended up not finishing.

A lovely book about the connections people make in times of impending change and tragedy. Bo is alone, but her family wants her to relocate since the floods are taking over her city. But then along comes Mia, a supercentarian that is in need of assistance with ever day tasks. Thus begins there beautiful relationship. There were points in the beginning that I felt it dragged a bit, but by midway I had become connected to the characters and their distinct personalities. The subject matter was refreshing and different from other dystopian novels and felt more about the connections we make in times of tragedy and what we do to survive. Recommended read.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Awake in the Floating City follows Bo, an artist and caregiver living in San Fransisco, which is now flooded, but there is still some inhabitants. She's almost leaving, but gets a note from Mia, an aging woman living in Bo's building, requesting Bo's services. This novel chronicles the next year of their lives.

This was an interesting read, and I enjoyed the prose. It's more literary than I typically read, but I do enjoy it. Bo is an interesting character and so is Mia. This book really makes you reflect on what you leave behind, both in your life and in the greater community.

I would recommend this read!

Awake in the Floating City is one of those novels of the near-future that plays off my own nervousness about what could happen. Normally I love the slow quietness of books like this (a la The City Where We Once Lived), but this one started to drag about halfway through. It started to get repetitive and slow, and when I finally got to the end I had skimmed a bit just to skip some of the scenes of Bo embracing her art, and also eating. For people who can’t always get food and don’t necessarily have money, these characters seem to spend an inordinate amount of time eating.

While the execution wasn’t exactly perfect, the premise was good and some of the writing and characterization beautiful. Imagining the life of a woman who is over a hundred years old, whose child is also over a hundred, who has seen generations of grandchildren and whose life has overlapped decades and even centuries, that is amazing and startling and almost ungraspable. Mia and the city both seem the same as they’ve always been to anyone who doesn’t know them, and yet are vastly changed and unknowable from what they once were. It’s a beautiful poetry that I enjoyed. In the end, it didn’t quite stick the landing but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

Thank to you Netgalley and the publisher for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 *'s
How do you memorialize where so much has changed? How do you say goodbye to a loved one?
Monuments serve as "a shape for what was lost."- such a beautiful idea, that this symbol or figure or image can hold all of the thing or person missing or gone, everyone's memories and feelings, hopes and dreams...
It takes Bo a while but she gets there in the end, ready to face her future...
Memorable quotes: "It was the practice of remembering."
"Project a face over a set of faces- that was one way to bring people together. Or a world over a world to collapse the passage of time."