Published by ‎ Random House on March 19, 2024

Téa Obreht writes allegorical novels. The Morningside is the story of people who feel the need to keep silent about their past to survive in the present. The key characters, Sylvia and her mother, represent everyone who has fled from a difficult circumstance and who fears being judged (or condemned, or killed) if they reveal the truth of their history.

For reasons that are only vaguely explained, Silvia and her mother left their home country as refugees. (All cities and countries in the book have fictional names. In keeping with the book's allegorical nature, they represent many places.) Silvia and her mother seem to have fled both a war and an environmental disaster that bears the signs (fires and floods) of global warming. Their passage was perilous. Along the way they joined a refugee camp. A war criminal was eventually placed in charge of clearing out the camp. His methods were unsound.

Sylvia’s mother taught her to hide her nationality so people will not make assumptions about what side she was on during the war or why she left. “It’s always dangerous to give people a way to tell themselves stories about you before they get to know you.” Yet Sylvia’s mother hides her past even from Sylvia, leaving her daughter to guess at the details of her homeland and the life her mother once lived.

Silvia and her mother now live in Island City, a place that might be a flooded Manhattan. The southern end of the island is underwater when the tides are in. The rules that govern residents include the consumption of government-supplied food rations and a prohibition against eating meat, although the rules don’t seem to apply to the wealthier island residents. A pirate radio station run by the Dispatcher gives a voice to less fortunate Island City residents.

Silvia and her mother are supposedly beneficiaries of the Repopulation Program. They were “recruited from abroad to move in and sway the balance against total urban abandonment.” Program beneficiaries have been promised better housing and newly constructed schools in the southern end of the island when the flooding recedes. The program is corrupt and the promises seem hollow. They give false hope to the relocated refugees. False hope might be better than none.

In the meantime, Silvia and her mother have been installed in Morningside, a large apartment building that was once elegant. Sylvia’s mother is employed as its superintendent. Many residents of Morningside have retained their wealth, including Bezi Duras, a mysterious woman who lives in the penthouse with her three large dogs.

Silvia lives a friendless, isolated life. She does chores in the Morningside, argues with her mother, and listens to the Dispatcher. When a new family moves into the Morningside, Silvia thinks she might finally have a friend in a girl named Mila, but the rude and bossy girl seems intent on getting into trouble and dragging timid Silvia along with her.

Silvia draws conclusions about her worlds that are rooted in the supernatural. She places objects (an empty perfume bottle, broken scissors) in places where they will support a spell of protection to keep her mother safe. A belief in the supernatural was instilled in Silvia by Ena, a now-deceased aunt (her mother’s or hers or just an aunt in general) who is the only relative other than her mother Silvia has ever known. Silvia believes Bezi Duras is a Vila (sort of a malignant fairy) and that her dogs are actually men who take canine form. Silvia’s beliefs are probably the imaginings of a young girl that were encouraged by Ena, but who knows? Obreht has a talent for making the supernatural seem natural.

Perhaps, as Silvia’s mother argues, a belief in magic prevents believers from having “a sense of true consequences.” Substitute “religion” for “magic” and Obreht might be weighing in on the reality of a benevolent god who allows refugees to endure enormous suffering at the hands of war criminals. Yet even in adulthood, Silvia will not surrender her belief that magic is real. She has always lived with the guilt that she saved her mother’s life by asking the Vila to take another person in her mother’s place at a time when her mother’s life was in danger. Whether that person was taken, what actually happened to her, is one of the novel’s unresolved ambiguities.

By the novel’s end, Silvia’s place of birth no longer exists. Events have forced Silvia, her mother, and the Dispatcher to remake their lives outside of Island City. The journey from an arbitrary birthplace to a place that feels like home is the story of refugees throughout history — at least, it is the story of refugees who manage to survive their ordeal. As Silvia’s mother observes, they are searching for light and its comforting illusion of warmth. Perhaps they can find it somewhere.

Obreht is a pleasure to read. Her first novel was a masterpiece. The two that have followed, while less stunning, continue the theme of finding lessons and hope in the hardships and mysteries of life. Obreht's reliance on folklore and mythology illuminates the darkness of modern times. As always, Obreht’s prose is both precise and evocative. The Morningside is a novel of allegorical truth that bears rereading.

RECOMMENDED

I love how Téa Obreht’s newest novel, THE MORNINGSIDE, feels like a return to some of the themes and storytelling craft that I loved in her debut THE TIGER’S WIFE. Set in a future world impacted by climate change, Silvia and her mother are refugees come to settle at the Morningside, a luxury apartment complex in Island City. I love that this novel uses this backdrop but wastes no time explaining the history or circumstances that led to the world looking as it does. The novel feels magical and full of folk stories. Silvia is taken in by the stories her Aunt Ena’s stories as she tries to navigate the world without a sense of her past. The characters of this novel are so well drawn, and the storytelling feels so full of imagination. The magical realism throughout makes the story feel touched with possibility, both fantastical and full of truth. I loved this book and can’t wait to spend time in whatever world Obreht creates next. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for access to the egalley!

In 2019, Tea Obreht blew me away with Inland, a work of historical fiction—alternative history actually—so creative that I haven’t stopped thinking about it to this day. Her new book The Morningside is a dystopian novel that, while not as remarkable as the previous effort, is both intriguing and memorable.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

Our protagonist is Silvia, and she and her mother are refugees from a homeland made dangerous by violent political turmoil. They were invited to live in The Morningside, a once grand old building fallen into disrepair by the flooding that comes with climate change. Silvia’s aunt, who arrives first, and her mother are to be caretakers and participate in the resettlement program.

At eleven, Silvia is full of questions. Her mother never talks about her father or about the past. Her aunt has photographs and stories; her mother is like the librarian that just wants everyone to stop talking. She is consumed by her fears. We readers have to wonder which of them is more realistic. Should the aunt stop blabbing, or should Sil’s mother get a grip? Silvia clearly prefers her aunt’s approach, but then, Sil is just a kid.

There’s a considerable wait list to get into school, so in the meanwhile, Silvia is bored, and bored kids have a tendency to get into trouble. Silvia becomes obsessed with the reclusive artist that lives in the penthouse. Nobody talks to her, because nobody is supposed to bother her. The one obvious thing about this neighbor is that she leaves home at the same time each day with her three dogs.

Silvia becomes convinced that the woman is a sorcerer whose dogs transform into humans—her three sons—for a portion of each day. My initial reaction is the same as her mother’s: don’t be ridiculous, Sil. Leave that poor woman alone. But then it dawns on me that this is fiction, after all, and this is Obreht, so…could the woman have supernatural powers?

Silvia is assisted twice in her spying mission, first by a neighbor that goes by Lam, and that is willing to exchange a pass key to enter the artist’s home for mail that was sent to him after he moved out. I wonder about this; an eleven year old is approached by an adult man for secret purposes. What could possibly go wrong?

Her other confederate is a girl her own age whose family moves into The Morningside. How starved Silvia has been for a peer! Yet this girl is even gutsier than Silvia, and she leads her into dangerous waters more than once.

That’s all I’m going to tell you, except that the story is fresh and original, and although I tend to be skeptical when it comes to this genre, there is never a moment when I find myself stepping back and saying, no way.

With a young protagonist, one might be tempted to say this is for young adults, and that’s possible; yet the vocabulary is advanced enough that the younger reader had better have extraordinary skills in reading and comprehension, not to mention stamina.

I recommend this novel to those that love the genre.

Beautiful, charming, lyrical story focusing on a girl who is growing up in a hotel after a climate apocalypse. That sounds really dramatic, but that's simply the setting. The story is focused on the love between mother and daughter and the extent parents go to keep their kids safe. I got very real Scout Finch vibes from Silvia's explorations of the world.

TW/CW: Scary situations, character death, language

REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily writing an honest review.

The Morningside is the story of refugees looking for home in a large tenement building after a massive war and climate crisis in what seems to be near future North America.

The main character, a little girl named Silvia, grows up in this building with her mother, and the book follows her from the time she’s ten years old until she becomes a grown woman.

While this book was no doubt well written, I can’t say that it really grabbed me. It felt like I kept waiting for something to happen, and when it finally did, it felt rushed and unsatisfying. Also, I thought the setting and the post-apocalyptic world was pretty under-utilized. When I finished this book, it felt strongly like I was missing something, but after a week thinking about it, I still can’t figure out what that was.

This is not a bad book, in fact it’s pretty interesting in places. But for me, it failed to deliver what it could have been.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book. It started off seeming like a dystopian sci-fi, but ended up being more of a commentary on genocide and being a refugee. I won’t lie and say that this story always made sense. It was a bit chaotic and some elements felt jarring. The bit about the mom being a scuba recovery diver was a bit out of nowhere. I just wanted more detail about what was going on. This was just an okay read for me.

I was so excited to receive this ARC as a fan of Obreht. It did not let me down! Beautiful as always, I can think of many people in my life who will love this book and can’t wait to recommend it.

This was an interesting read, but I didn't love it. I enjoyed the world the author created-it's dystopian and seems to have happened after climate change has gone wild. But there's not a lot happening until about 75% in. I liked the last 1/4 much better than the rest of it. So, if you don't mind a quiet and character driven novel with dystopian undertones and some magical realism, you might like this one.

I loved Tea Obreht’s first novel, The Tiger’s Wife. With the Balkan Wars, multigenerational family drama, and magical realism, the book felt like a dream where you couldn’t tell the difference between reality and fairy tales. The Morningside has the same underwater feel with the Balkan folklore woven throughout the story but with a futuristic, post-apocalyptic setting. Rather than being transported to the past and seeing how those pieces fit in the future, we are transported to the future and asked to contemplate a whole new set of “what ifs?”

I loved the darker magic in this book and how it wove its way through Silvia's relationships with her mother and Ena. The Morningside's once grand atmosphere was unique, lending the story a layered quality — story layered upon story, similar to the Balkan folktales themselves. Silvia’s oppression with Bezi Duras and her desire to uncover the mysteries surrounding her reminded me of Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman. I was so swept up in the mystery and adventure of it all.

As much as I loved the story, the writing, and Silvia, some threads of the novel just didn’t come together in a satisfying conclusion. I loved the ending and found it so emotional, but I just wanted more cohesion from certain threads of the story.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an aARC of this beautiful book. I would recommend this to lovers of Obreht’s other books and those who enjoy folklore and retellings.

I read Téa Obreht's first book, The Tiger's Wife, when it was published and loved it so much. I was so excited to read this one and I loved it just as much. The writing is amazing, so lovely and descriptive. I could picture all the characters and each setting so vividly.

Silvia and her mother have recently moved to The Morningside -- an apartment building far from home, in a non quite post apocalyptic society, but one that is quite different than ours. Silvia quickly becomes enamored with a woman living in the building, and is eager to find out more information about her.

I loved all of Silvia's magical thinking -- the stories she is told by her aunt Ena, as well as the stories she makes up. Silvia was such a great character -- I adored everything about her and loved getting to understand her motivations and inner workings. I loved her mother's character as well -- and the relationship and bond between them.

I adored the character of May -- his story was so interesting to me and the friendship between him and Sil was so sweet. I loved the contrast of Mila's life and the way she approached everything -- so different from Sil.

Overall I highly recommend this book -- the writing is so beautiful, the imagery is so lovely and the characters are so endearing.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

As always, Obreht's prose is stylistically stunning, but I felt, in this case, that the story was lacking and the speculative elements were incorporated in a way that felt more confusing than illuminating. Still, I would recommend this book to fans of Obreht's previous work, as well as those who enjoy beautiful writing on a line level.

Silvia and her mother move from their ancestral home and resettle in an old luxury apartment, where they end up becoming the superintendent. As Silvia takes over more of her mother's duties, she becomes obsessed with a resident who she believes has magic and when she meets a friend, they both try to find out more. Overall, a commentary on environmental issues, migration, political injustices and more. More time could have been spent on Silvia's family and also with Mila's family.

"The Morningside" is a creatively brilliant story of the haves and the have nots in a near future dystopian city under water. People living with violence and scarcity are lured by a government promise of a bright future if they will just work hard and due without for a while longer. What could possibly go wrong? I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find the answers and the ending was just right.

I received a drc from the publisher via NetGalley.

The thing I love most about Téa Obreht’s previous works is the way she seamlessly weaves tall tales and fables into the fabric of family stories, and ‘The Morningside’ was no different. And, as a person who lives on the east coast in one of those places that feels precariously perched in the path of rising tides, I could vividly imagine this future place.

DNF @ 28%

The Morningside is a dystopian novel all about the characters, and almost nothing about the world. Billed initially as science fiction, the only science fiction element in this seems to be that it’s a dystopian Earth following some sort of climate disaster. Other than that, nothing is explained.

I got about one quarter through this one, long enough for there to be some (even rudimentary) explanation of the world, if one was forthcoming, but nothing ever came. This is literary fiction, pure and simple—but billed as Scifi/Fantasy because the first time anyone uses the term ‘dystopian’ to describe it is the last time it’s listed as Literary. It’s a tale about the daughter and her mother (especially her mother) and little else. As such, I found it slow and tedious, with none of the escapism I normally find in a the books that I like.

Unfortunately, that’s where this one starts and ends. It’s a dystopian tale heavy on the tale and minimal on the dystopian. All about the characters, really. Slow build, but no world-building at all. In part, it’s likely that this just came at the wrong time for me, but that’s how it goes. Might’ve gotten farther in if I’d read it at another time, but I don’t see myself ever finishing this one—not unless it turns a complete 180 into something a bit more fast-paced or fantastical. Not my cup of tea.

I read and loved The Tiger's Wife by this author which came out... thirteen years ago now?! I haven't read her Western because I'm not generally a fan of those. I had the impression that this was a climate change book which also made me leery. But although the book is set in the near future and climate refugees are definitely a thing, it's not so much a book about that specifically.

This book is about refugees, though. Silvia and her mother have been running and looking for shelter ever since the young girl can remember. War tore up their country. Sil's mother has a rule about never speaking Ours (their native language) never saying where they are from, and generally volunteering as little information as possible about themselves. Sil isn't quite old enough to understand this at age 11.

But Sil has developed rituals of her own to keep her and her mother safe. Like many kids, she is inclined to magical thinking and this is magnified when the two of them go to live with Sil's aunt Ena, the caretaker of the old and splendid Morningside apartment building. Although the author never quite uses place names from our world, this is clearly one of those rich old buildings facing Central Park in New York City. Sil and her mother begin to make themselves both as invisible and as useful as possible, keenly aware of their status as people that the rich folks who occupy the building don't want to think about but still need.

Since Sil's mother has never given her any information about their family history, Sil soaks up anything that Aunt Ena says like a sponge. Ena likes to put their home country's folklore into their conversations. This leads Sil into several beliefs that feel childlike but that also feel like those of a person who is trying to take control of their circumstances any way that they can, even if those ways involve the supernatural.

Sil is extremely lonely. When a girl about her age, Mila, shows up in the building with her own mother, Sil is hopeful for a friendship but Mila is "stone all the way down" as Bezi Duras, the artist also from Home who lives in the penthouse suite and is seen as supernatural by Sil, tells Mila.

Sil keeps on doing things that she thinks are dangerous because she's compelled to. But the most dangerous thing that she ends up doing is because she feels safe.

There's a lot going on here that I haven't even mentioned. I don't always like books with child protagonists, but I felt for Sil, her loneliness, her difficult relationship with her mother, her fears and treacheries. Sil is 100% positive that magic exists and affects her and her family. I went back and forth all book over what kind of book this was. Is Sil just being a child and seeing meaning in coincidence? Or is there really something supernatural going on? The author plays it out expertly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book follows a mother and her daughter, Sil, navigating a semi-apocalyptic world in the throes of climate change as they move into a building called the Morningside. The first half of the book follows Sil as she attempts to learn more about the Morningside's residents and her family's past. The second half is more action-packed, following a discover Sil made about one of the residents along with her new best friend, a child who moved into the building recently. Additionally, a tragedy forces Sil and her mother to confront her past. 2.5 stars rounded up! While I LOVED the second half of this book, the first half dragged on way too long without building much suspense or understanding of the world the book was set in or character development. I think the concept in this book was wonderful and could've even been executed well in short story or novella form, but it was not executed to its fullest potential here.

One of the first books I read specifically for my Strong Sense of Place podcast was Téa Obreht's first book The Tiger's Wife. Set in an unnamed Balkan country, it's heartbreakingly beautiful and the pages practically turn themselves. The heroine Natalia is a young doctor, and she's only beginning to deal with the horrors of the 1990s civil wars when her much-adored grandfather dies. In grief and in celebration, she retells the stories her grandfather told her. There are elements of folklore and fairy tales — it seduces you into the world of a magical tiger, his wife, a bear-man, and other quirky characters, including a man described as deathless.

Her new book is 'The Morningside,' and it's got a few elements I cannot resist in a novel. It's narrated in the first person. By a somewhat precocious girl. And most of the action takes place in a once-glamorous, now sort-of rundown apartment building. That's located on an island city that once might have been New York. When I'd read the prologue and a bit of the first chapter, all I wanted to do was ditch my grownup commitments to keep reading. Like 'The Tiger's Wife,' it combines the shimmer and sparkle of an adult fairy tale with science fiction and magical realism.

In an interview, the author said she was inspired by two things to write this story. Her grandparents grew up in Yugoslavia, where, until the wars of the 1990s, different religions and ethnicities lived together pretty well. Her grandfather was Roman Catholic. Her grandmother was Muslim — and it was no big deal to anyone. Then, their country fell apart, and they lost the security of having a home.

Fast forward to the Covid lockdowns. Téa was living in New York City, and a luxury tower was being built right outside her window. She said she thought, 'building a building... what an act of faith in your institutions and the fact that the things that bring order and financial stability will continue as they are.' Those ideas collided — her grandparents' displacement and the new building — and she wondered what it would be like if people lived in a fancy tower like that, but 80 years from now. It's a lovely flight of fancy that's exquisitely executed.

I recommended this book on my podcast on March 22, 2024: https://strongsenseofplace.com/lolts/lolt-2024-03-22/

I couldn't get into this one for whatever reason. I think it was more of a me problem than a this book problem. I hope to try it again at some point.

I tend to avoid dystopian novels, I find a sameness to them all, and anyway we’re living in that dystopian future so why spend my time reading about it. This one, though, is different. Dystopian, yes, with migrants and immigrants and wars that have torn people apart, water-logged, and more, but hope runs through it, as does folklore, magical realism, and an engaging narrator, 11 or 12 when the narrator, Silvia, comes to the building called The Morningside, on a city island that might be Manhattan, with her mother, the two of them having survived war in their own country. Captivating.

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the ARC.