First published 1996
In 2041, Francis Conway belongs to the Swill, the masses who survive on meager government handouts. The young boy watches his world literally sink around him as rising waters threaten to swallow the overcrowded housing where he and millions of others scrape by. Government officials turn blind eyes to the crisis while corruption eats away at what little support exists for people like Francis. Nature and human failure work together, transforming the places where the Swill live into death traps. The waters keep rising. Francis must find his own path to safety as the flood approaches, knowing that the systems meant to protect him have already failed. His struggle becomes a race against time and tide in a world where being poor means being expendable.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, dystopia, 21st-century, climate-change, apocalyptic
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Swill
Period: 2041
387 pages · Paperback · Avon Books