Awake in the Floating City

Kwan debuts with a lyrical tale of a woman’s search for a better life in a near-future San Francisco deluged with never-ending rain. Bo, an artist turned caregiver, prepares to leave the city for Canada to live with relatives. Then Mia, Bo’s nearly 130-year-old neighbor, slides a note under her apartment door asking for her services. Bo agrees, and the two quickly form a bond, which rekindles Bo’s passion for painting and inspires her to start making a memorial to Mia comprised of drawings and photos from her life. As she immerses herself in the work, hoping to finish before Mia dies, Bo wonders whether she’ll leave the city after all. In spare and sometimes enigmatic prose, Kwan offers weighty insights into the human condition: “She felt uncomfortable now, with the homesickness of someone who was home.” Unfortunately, the plot is too leisurely paced, and Bo’s relationship with a married man named Eddie feels somewhat superfluous and underdeveloped. Still, readers of climate fiction such as Téa Obreht’s The Morningside will find much to enjoy. Agent: Marya Spence, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (May)