I enjoy dystopian fiction, and this book is set in a future San Francisco. Climate change has led to many parts of the city being flooded, and most people have fled. But Bo twice refuses the escape that her cousin has arranged for her. She is a caregiver for a 130 year old woman, Mia, and Bo just can't leave when Mia relies on her. But even more than that, Bo is an artist, who hasn’t been able to create anything since her mother disappeared. Now, she wants to create a memorial for Mia before she dies. In part it's a tribute to Chinese Americans and their history in the area. But it's also a gift to Bo's city, her home, and the people who have remained.

A melancholy novel that's really about the relationship between Bo and Mia, the (very) elderly woman she's been hired to care for in a San Francisco that's sinking under the weight of rain. I struggled a bit to get into this as it wanders before Mia is introduced. Bo is an artist who lost her mother in one of the floods, she's been putting off her cousin who wants her to sail for Canada, and she's struggling with life. Mia's daughter has moved to Europe. She's got an interesting story to tell Bo who, almost against her will, becomes engaged and decides to create a memorial for her. There's world building throughout the novel (I was fascinated by the mushrooms on the walls and the markets on the roof), a love interest for Bo, and a looming crisis for Mia. Many pages are devoted to Bo's art, which I had trouble visualizing. Neither Mia nor Bo is especially likable but their relationship will grow on them and on you. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. An interesting read and a nice debut.

I could say both good and bad things about this book. While not entertaining, it is beautifully flowery, at times captivating, at times frustrating to read the same rehashed topics, ending in a bit of a miss. I cared very much for Bo and Mia, but the art and navel-gazing in this book just got to me. I'm sure part of it is because this is a litfic disguised as a soft scifi novel. 2 stars, mostly because I really had to force myself to read this one.

A beautifully, uniquely written book. It is a little slow moving and didn't always keep my interest.

3.5 stars

In the near future, San Francisco is flooded. Bo lost her mother to the flash flood that brought the water that never receded. She refuses to give up hope that her mother is gone for good - even though it’s been over two years since her disappearance. Bo has adapted to this new way of life, and one day a note is slipped under her door from an elderly lady that lives in her building. Mia is 130 years old, her family has moved away, and she is nearing her death.

What began as a professional relationship quickly grew into a true friendship where Bo needed Mia just as much as Mia needed Bo. By far and away, this friendship is the heart of the book. Through their conversations, we explore themes of grief, resilience, and love. We learn a lot about the history of Chinese Americans and their place in history in the Bay Area of California. We also have a lot of reflection on legacy and how we make our mark on the world. How do we leave a piece of us in this world when it comes time for us to leave? Lastly, we learn the value of art and how artistic expression helps us create some of that legacy so that our mark on this world can be felt and remembered.

Overall, this is truly a beautiful debut. There is a whole bunch of depth and nuance; plenty of opportunities to mediate on the meanings of life, family, and friendship. I appreciated most of the book, but did feel a bit of a pacing issue in the middle. There were a few instances where I felt like Kwan was telling me and not showing me. I think I can appreciate all she was trying to attempt and I’m glad I read the book, but it was very slow-paced and a little heavy handed at times

Quiet, slow book celebrating the beauty of life

Set in approximately 2050, San Francisco is under water. Bo, whose mother went missing two years ago, is planning to move elsewhere when she receives a note from Mia, a 130-year-old woman needing some help around the house.

There isn’t one perfect character in this book or rather all of the characters are perfectly imperfect.

Also, this book begs for a book club. Because while Bo seemed to judge Beverly (Mia’s daughter) at times, Bo herself didn’t always get along with her own mother. Family relationships are often complex, and Awake in the Floating City did a spectacular job conveying that.

For those of you who read the book, what do you think is next for Bo?

As the floodwaters creep around the bottom floors of San Francisco highrises, Bo struggles to decide between staying in her home, the last place she saw her mother alive, and leaving to forge a new life in another region with her cousin and uncle. The loss of her mother--so sudden, so tragic--has left Bo bereft, in a lonely place. Her art used to be a motivator, but her depression has dampened the desire to be creative.
Caring for elderly people is the job that has kept her from going broke in the past, so Bo decides to take on a new client, 130-year-old Mia, who lives in another part of the building. While rains continue to fall and the remainder of San Francisco's population handle food shortages and power outages, Bo and Mia develop a relationship with mutual benefits: Mia is able to share experiences, and Bo is finally able to put creative effort into building an artistic memorial of Mia's life.

I loved this book. Judging by the number of passages I underlined, it's one of my top books of 2025. This is a novel replete with beautiful, poetic prose. I love how Mia and Bo nurture one another, and I love the way Bo honors Mia, San Francisco, and the city's survivors.

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. I don't receive compensation for my review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book, releasing May 13th!

This is a quiet, thoughtful novel that follows Bo, a woman living in a future San Francisco that is slowly being swallowed by water, and her caretaking of Mia, an elderly neighbor who lives in her apartment building. There are some futuristic cli-fi elements to this, but it's mostly a human story with a more narrow focus about the characters and their relationships and less about what's happening in the wider world due to climate change. Both our main characters are well developed-Bo can be a bit frustrating at times, but it feels realistic given what we know about her character. Since Bo is an artist and a main portion of the story involves her creating a new art piece, there's a LOT of information on different artistic techniques and mediums, which could be interesting but I sometimes found went on a bit too long and lost my attention. Lots of thematic content in here around memory, place, etc. as well. The ending worked very well for me and I enjoyed the writing style throughout. I feel like this book has been getting a lot of buzz and I don't know that it quite lived up to the hype for me, but I still enjoyed it!

Rounding up from 3.75.

This book was a beautifully written debut. It was not at all what I was expecting. I went into it thinking it was going to be more dystopian and cli-fi, but it ended up feeling more like a lit-fic or fictional memoir, and focusing on people, human relationships, and family. You aren’t told much background on the world you’re thrown into - this story is more about the characters. The relationship between Bo and Mia was artfully crafted, and the ending was absolutely beautiful.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan is a third person-POV literary climate fiction exploring the past and the near future. Bo is an artist who hasn’t been able to continue her art since her mother was swept away during a flood. When Mia, an elderly woman who lives in the same building, slips a note under Bo’s door, the two start a friendship as Bo becomes her caretaker. Through Mia, Bo starts to understand more about the past and her mother.

One of the things I really liked was how Bo’s POV reads like an artist’s POV. She mentions colors and shapes and we get deep in her head as she works on a mixed media project. Even when she’s blocked and deep in her grief, her art is still a part of who she is. This goes even further when she reflects on the guilt she feels for all the money her parents spent on her art lessons when everyone else was focusing on STEM as the droughts, floods, and famines became more common. Bo knows art is important, but the rest of the world isn’t as focused on it as everything shifts and changes regularly.

The climate fiction aspects felt quite realistic to me. Librarians, for instance, have had their jobs massively expanded, including documenting the spreads of epidemics and other medical responsibilities that should be held by nurses or the CDC. I fully believe that libraries, one of the most important public resources that we have in society, would become a hub for basically everything if access to other resources became scarce. There’s also cricket flour for baking and the diaspora returning to China as the US continues to go downhill.

Chapters focused more on Mia go into detail about China's more recent history, such as the Japanese occupation and arranged marriages. Mia herself was arranged at fourteen to marry a Chinese-American man who had no interest in being her husband. It was after the war when she found him again and demanded he take her back to America, giving a new life for her and their future child when Mia felt there was nothing left for her back home. Mia is a very strong character who is fiercely independent, making a good friend for the lost and grieving Bo.

I would recommend this to fans of climate fiction looking for a more literary work and readers who love books that explore both the past and the near future

This is a meditative post-apocalyptic(ish) book set in a futuristic version of San Francisco. I found the setting quite interesting in the sense that it bridges both the past century and the future, so it actually felt very present in a sense. There is also an overarching contrast between the urgency of the situation and the main characters' insistence in staying put.

I read some critiques that the story is too slow moving and that there's a lack of sci-fi elements but I think that the book has been marketed appropriately based on the description. You'll probably enjoy it if you like stories about complicated platonic relationships between women and exploring Chinese-American identity.

Thank you for the opportunity to review, and to the publisher for providing physical and electronic ARCs of this book.

Now THIS is a debut. Awake in the Floating City is the story of two of the last living people in a very flooded San Francisco in a future I hope never arrives. Bo is an artist that has stayed behind despite opportunities to escape like everyone else did. She has a small sliver of hope that her mom may also be alive, but reluctantly agrees to leave the floating city soon. A note is slipped under her door by a 130 year old mom, Mia, asking Bo to be her caregiver as her health declines. The pair spend time together and Bo is finally inspired to make art again.

As I wrote that plot set up, this sounds corny and predictable and maybe something we've read before. But...no. It's beautiful, and reflective, and answers the questions of what does it mean to honor a dying person, to honor a disappearing world in an ending that took my breath away. This isn't a spoiler, but Bo works to showcase the reaches of Mia's life in a profound way.

It's not perfect. It drags a bit, and if you are looking for any sort of world building or explanation on why there is a 130 year old in a floating city, you won't get it. It's simple, but wow is it good. I loved this exploration of legacy and love letter to care givers and art. May we all get to know our impact and reflect on our lives in the ways showcased here. Fans of Station Eleven should absolutely run for this one when it publishes on May 13th. Thank you to @pantheonbooks for the egalley.

A remarkable debut novel. It should appeal to a wide range of readers, and while it is technically science fiction, it might be marketed as literary fiction. A more personal story beyond the climate disasters depicted, focusing on Bo, a 40-something Chinese-American woman clinging to the past in the only place she has ever lived, the flood ravaged San Francisco. Highly recommended.

Quite an interesting look at a dystopian novel. It had more character development than what I was anticipating and really connected with the story line.

I enjoyed the beginning of Awake in the Floating City. I thought the book was more dystopian as the setting was a flooded city where the remaining people lived in sky high apartments and had outdoor markets on the roof tops. The adventure side of the story dissipates and it becomes more of a memoir of Bo's life and how she cares for an elderly woman who also refused to leave the flooded city. For me there wasn't enough action to keep me interested.

This wasn’t really what I was expecting. Based on the description, I was expecting a cli-fi story. It turned out to be a literary fiction novel about a middle aged woman finding her way and her relationship (Bo) with a dying woman (Mia.) In this speculative future, some people are living way past the century mark. Mia is 130. At around 40, perhaps Bo is the equivalent of a twenty-something in this world,

Bo has been struggling to stay or flee her California City which is on the brink of being unlivable. When we meet her, she’s a non-practicing artist. She takes a gig taking care of Mia, an elderly Chinese-American woman with no local family, Mia creeps closer to death as the book progresses, and Bo connects more with her life and art. Mia provides Bo with interesting stories about her long life and family history. The cli-fi element of this novel doesn’t really add to the story and it could have been solely about the relationship between the two women.

The book was well written and Kwan used language to beautifully tell this story, even if it wasn’t the story I was really looking for. If you’re a fan of modern art and the process, you might find this one especially interesting.

Thank You Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon Press and NetGalley for access to the ARC of this book.

This was not what I thought it would be, I struggled to engage with the story and the characters. The pacing was too slow and the plot was almost non-existent. I was at the point of giving up about 30% in, I jumped to the end to see if it would give me a reason to stick with it despite the lack of interest in the beginning, but still nothing. I went back a bit further still, still nothing. The premise seemed like it would be the scaffolding for an interesting story, but alas, it was stagnant and flat and didn't give me a reason to stick with it.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. I really appreciated the details of everyday life for Bo and Mia but I just couldn’t stick with it. After reading other folks glowing reviews, I think the pace it just a bit to slow for me to stick with it.

Sadly this book just wasn't for me. I was hoping for it to be more about the setting and the world rather than the day by day of the characters, and I totally understand why the author took this direction so it is 100% a me problem! Totally recommend for people who prefer the literary fiction side of SFF. A huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me a free eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts!

The premise of this book sounded so interesting to me. San Francisco in the future - a floating city with never-ending rain. A young woman cares for an older woman (over 100 years old) and both seem stuck and unwilling to leave the city. Bo struggles to create art after losing her mother in a storm and much of the book followed her process in learning how to create a memorial after suffering such a loss. I had a hard time getting into this book and I felt like the plot was so slow. I just didn’t care about what was going on, like these characters who are unwilling to move I felt stuck and disappointed throughout much of this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.