the morningside is a villa in an unknown locale. silva, or rather sil, helps run the villa with her mother. they are from paraiso and are part of a repopulation program. it is imperative that sil and her mother speak and write english according to those who run the program. sil's mom is incredibly gifted when it comes to languages, but she dislikes the disorder and messiness of english. there is a colorful, bizarre, odd cast of characters that are so fun.

this novel is short, sweet; mystical, and realistic at the same time. it's so lovingly strange. sil is a character that i just couldn't help but adore. she's industrious, intelligent, and intuitive to those around her. she reminds me of myself, as she is the daughter of immigrants with limited english. я тоже! to live in an english-centric society as an immigrant or the child of immigrants is to detach yourself from your culture. but sil? she is in tune with her identity. this novel feels like a love letter to her mother.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

This is one of the most unusual and strange books I have ever read. It is a novel of the future, but it is not science fiction, it is about artists with mystical powers and dogs that are really transformed children, but it is not fantasy. Whatever it is, this is a hypnotic and beautifully written novel about a young girl and her mother, refugees from some southern country, who come to live with a relative in a formerly luxurious high rise building in a partially drowned city which could (or could not0 be New York.

There is a woman in the penthouse, an artist, who might (or might not) be a Vila, a mythical creature who lives in the heights above a village and demands sacrifices from those whom she guards. We never really find out for sure if Ms. Duras is one, or do we?

Silvia, or Sil as she is called, is an intelligent and hard-working pre-adolescent child who supports her mother, who works, at first, as Superintendent of The Morningside, this high rise (wherever it is). She leaves Sil to perform the superintendent job to earn more money by becoming a salvage diver deep below the underwater city buildings. Sil is later befriended by a local writer and later by a new girl, Mila who is braver and more adventuresome than Sil.

Readers of The Deluge or The Heat Will Kill You First will see here the results of global warming in frightening detail (not so far from our own current reality), but this novel will chill you as it fascinates you and leaves you thinking for a long time after you close the last page,
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Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this early copy.