"Condé's brutal, mystical, and deeply felt speculative debut lifts up a vision of Indigenous resistance and renewal in the face of climate change and colonizers."
- Publishers Weekly Starred Review
★ NPR - BEST BOOKS OF 2023
★ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY - 7 Books from 2023 You Shouldn't Overlook
★ REVIEWS: LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS, LOCUS MAGAZINE, FOREWORD REVIEWS
In the aftermath of a category 6 hurricane in Puerto Rico, aspiring journalist Vero Diaz leads an effort to rebuild his community, reviving ancient Taíno traditions to survive the storm's aftermath and their island's new colonizers. Still gripped by tradition, many do not accept Vero, a trans man, as their leader, driving him to start a new life abroad.
His new career as a reporter brings him to the Yucatán, where he finds a landscape ravaged by an ecological disaster of humanity's own making-the Hydrophage, a climate technology warped into a weapon of war by the ruthless dictator, Caudillo. In the ruin that war carved, Vero documents the lives of the survivors, finding stories of resilience, hope, and relentless determination; a gardener who sows seeds in rubble; an amnesiac searching for purpose in the twilight of his life; and a Maya revolutionary called the Loba Roja, whose daring vision for the future both inspires and frightens him.
What must they sacrifice to protect their people and way of life?
What must they become to stop the colonial forces that seek the destruction of their worlds?
