I received this book via the publisher St. Martin's Press. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

Published by St. Martin's Press on 2025-01-07
Length: 290 pages
Reviewing eARC from the publisher St. Martin's Press
Rating:
Reading Challenges: #NGEW2025, 2025 New Release Challenge





In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.
"Gripping...tense, delightful and rich with resonance." —Scientific American
"Captivating...The setting, the detailed emotive descriptions, and nail-biting adventure are incandescent." —Library Journal (starred)
All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. 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.
Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most – love and work, community and knowledge – will survive.
All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall is a stand-alone speculative fiction about one family’s fight for survival in the midst of global catastrophe. Climate change has melted the polar ice caps, water has moved in, and the weather has turned upside down. Nonie and her family are one of the lucky few to have survived the initial storms and floods in New York City. Living in the abandoned American Museum of Natural History, Nonie and her family as well as a handful of other survivors eek out an existence on the rooftop. Together they catalog what has survived in the museum and record what history they can. Nonie is one of a few children who the adults have taken on educating in not just history but daily survival. When a monster storm blows in breaking the flood walls and taking the roof with it, Nonie and a handful of survivors must leave their home and find a new one in the world that’s left.
This was an interesting read, one that will stick with me for a while. The story was told entirely from Nonie’s perspective and excerpts from her Water Log book. Nonie is thirteen at the start of the story and barely remembers the world before the museum. Her life has been boiled down to learning and surviving. While the author doesn’t come right out and say it, Nonie is most likely autistic, definitely neurodivergent. She sees the world around her in a different way and mentions multiple times how her sister and father do not understand her lack of emotions/ability to show emotions. Because of this trait, her narration is interesting. While the reader will pick up on the tension of the other characters and danger they are in, Nonie doesn’t always which really makes you feel for her when the danger presents itself.
Following the destruction of AMNH (they call it Amen in the book for short), Nonie, her father, sister, and one other adult are the only survivors. Together, they take a canoe and sail out of the city. The goal is to find a farm that belongs to Nonie’s mother’s family. The trek there is the story as Nonie has never left AMNH that she can remember since coming to it as a child. The trauma they face, as well as the world as it is now, isn’t what she expected. I loved the characters they met along the way. Not all are good, but some are. It’s interesting to see how the world has adapted to survive.
Overall, I really enjoyed All the Water in the World. It gives you a lot to think about. Nonie is a fantastic choice for narration as well as an interesting one. It took a bit to adjust to how she tells the story because it isn’t how most would. She focuses on details that don’t seem important at the time. If you are a fan of dystopia or speculative fiction, I highly recommend it.
I’ve seen this one about and think I would enjoy it. Great review!
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I’ve been seeing this one around too! And it sounds like a good read, and definitely like it would make a good movie or tv series! Great review!
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I think it would make an excellent adaptation. There is so much to explore!