In Susanna Kwan\u2019s stunning debut novel, \u201cAwake in the Floating City,\u201d we encounter a San Francisco transformed by relentless rain\u2014a city half-drowned, half-abandoned, yet stubbornly persisting beneath layers of green growth and flood waters. Through this waterlogged landscape moves Bo, a stalled artist who has lost her mother to a flood and cannot bring herself to leave, even as evacuation seems the only rational choice. When Bo receives a note from Mia, an elderly woman in her building requesting care, she finds a reason to stay\u2014and in doing so, discovers that sometimes remaining in place can be its own act of courage.<\/p>\n
Kwan\u2019s prose is precise and lyrical, creating a world that feels both alien and achingly familiar. Her vision of this future San Francisco is meticulously crafted\u2014buildings connected by narrow bridges, rooftop markets replacing street-level commerce, nature reclaiming concrete in spectacular fashion. But what makes this dystopian setting<\/a> so compelling isn\u2019t just its visual rendering but how it serves as the perfect backdrop for exploring profound questions about memory, connection, and what it means to bear witness.<\/p>\n \u201cAwake in the Floating City\u201d moves with the fluid rhythm of its setting, flowing between present moments and memories. The seven-year deluge that has transformed San Francisco serves as both literal reality and powerful metaphor. As Bo notes while walking with Mia: \u201cColors went extinct with species. The palette of a place, like its ecology, kept changing.\u201d<\/strong> <\/em>This observation encapsulates one of the novel\u2019s central themes\u2014that the loss of a place involves the erasure not just of buildings and streets, but of entire ways of seeing and experiencing the world.<\/p>\n Kwan has constructed a narrative that resists traditional chronology, much like memory itself. Through Bo\u2019s interactions with Mia, we discover layers of history: Mia\u2019s journey from China during World War II, her struggles as a young immigrant in San Francisco, her complex relationship with her daughter Beverly. These stories weave into Bo\u2019s own history, creating a rich tapestry that spans generations and continents<\/a>.<\/p>\n The novel\u2019s strength lies in how naturally these historical elements are incorporated. Rather than feeling like didactic interludes, Mia\u2019s recollections of Chinatown after the 1906 earthquake or the toxic contamination of former naval yards feel organic to her character\u2014the accumulated wisdom of someone who has witnessed a century of transformation.<\/p>\n What elevates \u201cAwake in the Floating City\u201d beyond its dystopian premise are its deeply realized characters, particularly the relationship between Bo and Mia. Their dynamic evolves beautifully throughout the novel, moving from the formality of caregiver and client to something more profound\u2014not quite friendship, not quite family, but a bond forged through mutual need and recognition.<\/p>\n Mia emerges as one of the most memorable literary characters in recent fiction. At nearly 130 years old, she\u2019s a living archive of San Francisco history, sharp-tongued and unsentimental. Her contradictions make her deeply human\u2014she can be cruel yet vulnerable, stubborn yet adaptable. In one particularly poignant scene, Bo finds Mia waiting alone in her best clothes for a birthday party that Bo has forgotten to attend. The quiet dignity with which Mia bears this disappointment reveals volumes about a character who has survived decades of similar abandonments.<\/p>\n Bo herself is a beautifully realized protagonist whose artistic block parallels her emotional stasis after her mother\u2019s disappearance. Her journey isn\u2019t toward dramatic epiphany but rather toward a gradual reawakening to both her creative impulses and her capacity for connection. Through her care for Mia, she begins to see that art isn\u2019t about permanence but about bearing witness, even to that which is disappearing.<\/p>\n Kwan\u2019s greatest triumph is her sensory evocation of this transforming city. The novel brims with moments of startling beauty: vines covering skyscrapers, footbridges swaying between buildings, the ethereal quality of light through rain. These descriptions never feel ornamental but rather essential to understanding the characters\u2019 experiences of their shifting world.<\/p>\n The artistry of the novel culminates in Bo\u2019s multimedia memorial project\u2014a city-wide installation that projects forgotten histories onto buildings, rain, and fog. This sequence is breathtaking in its ambition and execution, perfectly embodying the novel\u2019s themes about memory, impermanence, and the power of art to momentarily reclaim what is being lost.<\/p>\n If the novel has a weakness, it lies in occasional pacing issues in the middle sections. Some readers may find that certain scenes between Bo and Mia become repetitive, though others will appreciate how these quiet moments mirror the suspended quality of life in the flooded city. Additionally, some secondary characters, particularly Bo\u2019s cousin Jenson, could benefit from further development to make their emotional stakes in Bo\u2019s decision more resonant.<\/p>\n \u201cAwake in the Floating City\u201d explores several interconnected themes with remarkable subtlety:<\/p>\n Memory and preservation<\/strong>: How do we hold onto what matters when the physical world is washing away? The novel\u2019s engagement with Chinese American history feels particularly significant. Kwan weaves historical details\u2014from Angel Island detentions to the I-Hotel protests\u2014into the narrative fabric without ever reducing her characters to cultural representatives. Mia\u2019s experiences as a Chinese immigrant woman born in the 1920s are specific and individual while also reflecting broader historical patterns.<\/p>\n \u201cAwake in the Floating City\u201d stands alongside works like Kim Stanley Robinson\u2019s \u201cNew York 2140\u201d and Omar El Akkad\u2019s \u201cAmerican War\u201d in its thoughtful engagement with climate crisis. However, Kwan\u2019s approach is distinctive in its intimate scale and its focus on preservation rather than adaptation. This isn\u2019t a novel about technological solutions or societal reorganization but about bearing witness to loss with clear eyes and an open heart.<\/p>\n Kwan\u2019s background as an artist shines through in her detailed rendering of Bo\u2019s creative process. The descriptions of cyanotypes, projections, and holographic installations feel authentically grounded in artistic practice while serving the emotional and thematic arc of the story.<\/p>\n \u201cAwake in the Floating City\u201d is a remarkable debut that manages to be both elegiac and hopeful, intimate and expansive. Its vision of a drowning San Francisco serves as both warning and reminder of what we stand to lose\u2014not just buildings and infrastructure, but histories, communities, and ways of seeing the world.<\/p>\n Despite occasional pacing issues and some underdeveloped secondary characters, the novel succeeds brilliantly in its ambitious aims. The relationship between Bo and Mia anchors the narrative, providing emotional resonance for the broader themes of memory, witness, and resilience.<\/p>\n In a cultural moment saturated with post-apocalyptic narratives<\/a>, Kwan offers something refreshingly different\u2014a story set not after catastrophe but during its slow unfolding. In doing so, she asks us to consider what it means to remain present and attentive even as the waters continue to rise.<\/p>\nA Tapestry of Time and Water<\/h2>\n
Characters That Haunt Long After the Final Page<\/h2>\n
Strengths and Challenges<\/h2>\n
Thematic Richness and Cultural Context<\/h2>\n
\nIntergenerational trauma and resilience<\/strong>: Both Bo and Mia have inherited histories of survival and displacement.
\nThe ethics of staying versus leaving<\/strong>: Is Bo\u2019s refusal to evacuate an act of courage or delusion?
\nArt as witness<\/strong>: Can creative expression preserve what would otherwise be lost<\/a>?<\/p>\nA New Voice in Climate Fiction<\/h2>\n
Final Assessment<\/h2>\n