The Water Knife - Book Review

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If you have money and power, you can have anything. And that includes water, a scarce resource in Paolo Bacigalupi's novel The Water Knife. Set in a future America where New Jersey no longer exists and Phoenix, Arizona is run by gangs, the novel tells the converging stories of three individuals. There's Angel, a "water knife" who does whatever it takes to make sure his boss' city always has water. Lucy is a journalist torn between reporting the truth and staying alive. And Maria, a young refugee from Texas with the promises of her late father still ringing in her head. What lengths will each one go to to make some money, to get out of their dire situations, to find a piece of paper giving water to the highest bidder?

The book has some violent moments. You'd expect this from a world run by gangs and desperate people.

But that's not what is most scary about this book. The scariest thing about this book is that one day it could become reality.

All January I read non-fiction books about climate change, and if you watched my January to-read video, then you'll know I also randomly added in The Water Knife from my to-read stash to break up all the non-fiction with some fiction. Little did I know upon pulling the book from my shelf that it, too, dealt with climate change.

And the book is a cautionary tale. This is what can happen if we continue to do nothing. Just like the fictional world in the book, here in our real world, we have people (scientists, journalists, etc.) alerting us to the crisis. Everybody knows it's coming, and yet we do nothing. We're just bringing it on ourselves.

This book came out in 2015, and five years later, it is still relevant and an intriguing read.

The book is published by Knopf. I received a free copy at BookExpo 2015.