An achingly beautiful meditation on life - what we do with it, who we spend it with, and the experiences that make it up. This made me nostalgic and appreciative of all the mundanity and wonder of everyday living.

This is a slow-paced, character centered novel. That's not a bad thing, in my opinion, and it gave me time to savor the little details and the growing friendship between Bo and Mia.

The setting was haunting and sad but also beautiful, seeing people persist in the wake of catastrophic flooding in San Francisco.

I recently lost my grandmother, so reading about Bo's attempts to memorialize Mia and her life felt especially tender. Anyone who's ever lost a grandparent they were close to will appreciate the book's deliberations on memory and honoring those we love.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I was not sure about this book going into it what it was based off the description but I ended up loving it. This book grabbed me from the beginning and took me in a journey that I needed to go on. This story is about relationships in a world that is not what it used to be. It is a story of grief and love and life that pulls you in and pulls at the heartstrings. I was here for it all. I read a NetGalley copy of this book.

This was such an interesting story, I thought it would be focused on the environment and the disaster, but it was so focused on characters and their stories and that was wonderful.

"It was the practice of remembering."

The lovely flow of Kwan's prose makes this book read like the flow of water. Like the brushstrokes of watercolor on an artist's easel or the gurgle of a mountain stream. I wish I had the words to explain how beautiful this book is.

"She listened to the hum beyond the rain. She dreamed of color."

Bo is such an endearing character. Her love of family, which also sometimes feels like drowning. Her patient care for a person she just met that causes ripples in the storyline. Her artist's heart that ebbs and flows like the sea itself. Such gorgeous water imagery throughout the story.

"Project a face over a set of faces - that was one way to bring people together. Or a world over a world to collapse the passage of time."

The city may be drowning but Bo is surviving, and I think that's the perfect description of life for all of us these days.

"She'd been alone, thought herself invisible. But somehow someone had found her. And strangely, startlingly, needed her."

As Bo's life slowly starts to change, the reader is treated to a peek inside the artist's mind and process. Like the layers of acetate and images, we are given a glimpse of life, staggeringly vast and beautiful.

And then, on an entirely personal level, there's this:

"I guess ... I guess I've been missing my mother."
"Hmm ... You wanted her for longer."
"Yes."
"But you get the time you get."
... She could still feel her mother in the room.

I like near future fiction books and I thought I would enjoy Awake in the Floating City. It has a good concept following constant rain and flooding which drives daily life to the top of buildings. I just couldn’t get into it though and I ended up not finishing.

A lovely book about the connections people make in times of impending change and tragedy. Bo is alone, but her family wants her to relocate since the floods are taking over her city. But then along comes Mia, a supercentarian that is in need of assistance with ever day tasks. Thus begins there beautiful relationship. There were points in the beginning that I felt it dragged a bit, but by midway I had become connected to the characters and their distinct personalities. The subject matter was refreshing and different from other dystopian novels and felt more about the connections we make in times of tragedy and what we do to survive. Recommended read.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Awake in the Floating City follows Bo, an artist and caregiver living in San Fransisco, which is now flooded, but there is still some inhabitants. She's almost leaving, but gets a note from Mia, an aging woman living in Bo's building, requesting Bo's services. This novel chronicles the next year of their lives.

This was an interesting read, and I enjoyed the prose. It's more literary than I typically read, but I do enjoy it. Bo is an interesting character and so is Mia. This book really makes you reflect on what you leave behind, both in your life and in the greater community.

I would recommend this read!

Awake in the Floating City is one of those novels of the near-future that plays off my own nervousness about what could happen. Normally I love the slow quietness of books like this (a la The City Where We Once Lived), but this one started to drag about halfway through. It started to get repetitive and slow, and when I finally got to the end I had skimmed a bit just to skip some of the scenes of Bo embracing her art, and also eating. For people who can’t always get food and don’t necessarily have money, these characters seem to spend an inordinate amount of time eating.

While the execution wasn’t exactly perfect, the premise was good and some of the writing and characterization beautiful. Imagining the life of a woman who is over a hundred years old, whose child is also over a hundred, who has seen generations of grandchildren and whose life has overlapped decades and even centuries, that is amazing and startling and almost ungraspable. Mia and the city both seem the same as they’ve always been to anyone who doesn’t know them, and yet are vastly changed and unknowable from what they once were. It’s a beautiful poetry that I enjoyed. In the end, it didn’t quite stick the landing but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

Thank to you Netgalley and the publisher for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 *'s
How do you memorialize where so much has changed? How do you say goodbye to a loved one?
Monuments serve as "a shape for what was lost."- such a beautiful idea, that this symbol or figure or image can hold all of the thing or person missing or gone, everyone's memories and feelings, hopes and dreams...
It takes Bo a while but she gets there in the end, ready to face her future...
Memorable quotes: "It was the practice of remembering."
"Project a face over a set of faces- that was one way to bring people together. Or a world over a world to collapse the passage of time."

I got half way through and just didn’t want to continue. I think Bo’s apathy and indecision got to me. It became too slow and it was pretty slow to begin with. This is well written and arty, the author has talent. I just like more story and less reflection to keep me interested. The two stars are for the writing but I’m afraid I just didn’t care about the characters or what was (or rather wasn’t) happening.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A young woman lives in Calufirnia as it's sinking under water. She acts as a caretaker to an elderly woman while she works on her art.

This is a very original novel that combines the, hopefully, far-reaching effects of climate change along with personal loss, grief, and situational depression. The protagonist is "stuck" in her grief for her mother, and she is also having great difficulty deciding upon her next steps in dealing with her circumstances. She is living in a high rise in a flooded and literally floating San Francisco where everyone must walk roof to roof to get out of their apartments. It is very surreal and yet relatable in many ways. I thought the author's use of temporary relationships as they relate to long-term relationships was intriguing, and it is very satisfying to follow her on her journey to resolving her lack of internal direction and her unresolved grief. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys dystopian plots that with also rely heavily on relationships and personal struggles. Many thanks to Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Bo is a blocked artist living in a drowned San Francisco in an unnamed time in the near future. She is one of few residents left and even though her remaining family begs her to leave, she just cannot seem to do so. She soon takes a job as a caretaker for a "super senior" living in her building and forms an unlikely bond with the woman. This is a beautifully written, quiet and meditative book. It illuminates the transitory nature of all things, including ourselves, our families, our cities, our art, and even memory. How do we fully live and thrive in the face of this impermanence? And not just live, but create art and remember into the future for those who come after us. Highly recommended. It will make a nice book club pick, and the cover art is a bonus.

I know there are a lot of dystopian books out there right now, and I know that may make for some eye rolls, but Susanna Kwan’s novel Awake in the Floating City is not your typical dystopian novel, and I think it’s better because of that.
   Years of rain have made for a submerged city, but one that still has residents that decided to stay and are living life as best as they can. (This isn't one of those books that focuses on how that's possible or how it's done.) Bo is one of those residents. An artist whose mother had been carried away in a storm, leaving her alone and unaware if her mother is still alive.  Bo is planning an escape, has the date picked out, and is getting ready to go. Things change when a note is slid under her door by Mia, an elderly woman who lives in her building and wants to hire Bo to be her caretaker.
   I can best describe the relationship between the two as rough to begin with. Stories are shared, lives mix and in some ways, Mia fills in as the mother that Bo no longer has, and Bo is often treated as a daughter.  There’s a particular scene involving the cleaning of a pan that just felt SO very real to me in how it plays out. You’ll have to read it and see..
   As the two share their memories, Bo comes to a realization about the lost history that will occur once the city is gone, and is inspired to create art again and makes one epic piece, which I can’t give away here, but it is detailed so wonderfully in Kwans writing.
   This book is beautifully written and feels like a love letter to home healthcare provider, especially family taking care of family. Created family, our histories, and our legacies. It really hit home with me on many pages.

I was absolutely sold by the "for fans of Emily St. John Mandel and Celeste Ng" marketing, and I'm not 100% sure that's how I would pitch this book. I can see why the comparisons were made, but I feel like that might be setting readers up for disappointment.

This is climate fiction, technically, and a dystopian, technically, but those aspects take a back seat to the character study of Bo, a thirty-something artist and in-home caregiver who has chosen to stay in this climate change-ravaged future San Francisco far longer than most anyone else her age, it seems. The pacing is slow and meandering and never really builds, but the relationship between Bo and the the elderly neighbor she cares for captured my interest more than anything.

I could definitely see this working as a book club pick for readers who enjoy slow paced literary fiction. The plot is straightforward, and there aren't very make characters to keep track of.

Interesting book looking at the effect of place on peoples lives. Deep character study but little plot. Interesting look at a climate change future.

Bo is an artist who makes a living as a care worker. Living in the flooded city of San Francisco where the continuing
rain is destroying the infrastructure. Apartments are located on the top floors of buildings and the rooftops are
where vendors set up shop. Most people have fled the city, but Bo can't seem to make herself leave despite the
entreaties of her cousin and uncle. She takes a job looking after 130 year old Mia, another resident in the
building. As Mia shares her story, Bo is moved to make Mia's birthday a celebration of her life, reawakening Bo's
love of art.
A reminder to treasure the time one has with loved ones.
#AwakeintheFloatingCity #Pantheon #NetGalley

Susanna Kwan is the rare author that has written a debut work that is both highly anticipated, and one that lives up to the expectations. It's set in the near-future where coastal areas are flooded after years of rain and most lives take place on rooftops. This is Bo's world, a world where most other people have fled to escape the floods, but Bo can't bring herself to leave. She is an artist, but who is she making art for? Bo eventually becomes a caregiver to Mia, a 130 year old woman who also refuses to leave her home and this is where the artistry begins. Their relationship is beyond beauty and is to be treasured.
For readers of All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

I read an advance copy and was not compensated

This debut novel is the type of story I normally really enjoy: nearish future, sort of dystopic, climate fiction, focus on people who are adapting to how to live on a changed planet. In this book, protagonist Bo lives in San Francisco, the titular "floating city" whose streets are now rivers thanks to climate change. Most residents have left for places with more stable climates, but Bo is plagued by inertia and stays. She lost her mother to a flood and that pulls her to stay in her home city. She is also an artist who has been blocked for years and can't produce. She is "stuck" on many levels.

When Bo intermittently needs to earn money to survive, she works as a "support worker" - what today we might call a personal health care worker. She works with a placement agency and provides in-home care to aging people. And "aging" means life spans of 150 years or so, thanks to advances in health care.

Near the start of the novel, Bo sabotages yet another arrangement her cousin (settled in safer Canada) has made to get her out of San Francisco. She takes an assignment with an elderly women who lives in the same high-rise building as Bo. Mia and Bo share Chinese ancestry and some cultural practices. Bo forms an attachment to Mia.

The "awake" in the title refers to Bo's slow awakening to her reality and how it compares to life in the city in different time periods. The climax of the book comes when Bo realizes an ambitious art project that combines source material from her and Mia's personal pasts, as well as the history of San Francisco, with modern technology that allows her to create a temporary piece viewable from throughout the city. It's sort of like performance art in that it's time-bound. For me, this was the strongest part of the book (and I especially loved the part with the Antonia the librarian who is preserving physical and digital history against all odds!).

In the end, I gave 3 stars for "liked it." There were things I didn't like so much, though. Early in the book, I had a hard time distinguishing the dialogue between Bo and Mia - their written voices are much too similar and could have been better differentiated. I also did not enjoy reading much of this book, but I think that's because the atmospheric ennui and climate doom are hitting too close to home (context: USA, early 2025).

In the end, this is a passage that resonates for me: "Everyone wanted Bo to believe that there were better places out there, places that weren't under relentless threat. They called this city a death trap. But she knew the truth: it was terrible, sometimes, everywhere" (89% ebook). And that is the terrible truth of this world. It is terrible, sometimes, everywhere. And it's coming for all of us, and quickly.

This is well written book about a city in the future and not wanting to leave as there is attachment there.
But it is a very slow moving book. I had a hard time staying engaged at times.
But I think many will like it and find the characters intriguing.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.