The Water Knife: A Novel

Name: The Water Knife: A Novel
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
ISBN: 9780385352871

by Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi, New York Times-Bestselling author and National Book Award Finalist, dives once again onto our uncertain future with his first thriller for adults since his multi-award winning debut phenomenon The Windup Girl. In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, detective, leg-breaker, assassin and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel "cuts" water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet, while the poor get nothing but dust. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in drought-ravaged Phoenix, Angel is sent to investigate.…

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"Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife imagines a near-future in which the Southwestern U.S. has balkanized over water rights. The rich live in posh high-rise terrariums while the poor suffer in the dust below, and states and corporations are at war (real war — with guns) over water and centuries-old paperwork giving them rights to the flow. For Bacigalupi, it’s all too easy to picture — I mean, his book even predicted Tesla’s bioweapon defense mode. It’s a must-read for science-fiction geeks, eco-freaks and everyone who loves a great page-turner."

NPR Books We Love — 2015 · apps.npr.org