The Morningside

In a near-future world reshaped by climate disaster, eleven-year-old Silvia and her mother arrive as resettled refugees in a partly drowned, depopulated city, taking up residence in the Morningside, a decaying luxury tower where Silvia's aunt Ena works as the superintendent. Silvia's mother refuses to speak about their lost homeland or the family's past, so the girl turns to Ena's old-country folktales, which describe a woman in the building who may be a mythical Vila able to take the shape of animals. As Silvia investigates, the boundary between the flooded modern city and the folklore of the world her family fled begins to dissolve. Obreht builds a lush, dreamlike account of memory, migration, and the stories a child clings to when the adults around her will not explain the ruined world.