All the Water in the World

Published in 2024, All The Water in The World is Eiren Caffall’s debut novel. Caffall is a writer and musician who authored the novel while based in Chicago. Her writing, including work on climate change, has appeared in Guernica, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Al Jazeera, and the anthology Elementals: Volume IV.

All The Water in the World is a sci-fi dystopian thriller set in a world destroyed by climate change in the tradition of postapocalyptic fiction like Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. The story unfolds from the first-person perspective of Nonie, a young girl who can feel the approach of storms. When a “hypercane” hits New York City, it destroys her home and forces her and her family to make a dangerous trek to safety. The narrative alternates between the present and flashbacks to important moments in Nonie’s early life. In these flashbacks, she recalls the background of her friends and family, the development of their relationships, and her relationship with her deceased mother. An extract from Nonie’s Water Logbook prefaces each of the novel’s five parts. The story explores themes that relate to establishing a secure future, preserving knowledge, and understanding the impact of climate change on humans.

This guide uses the 2024 Google Books eBook.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, sexual violence, and racism.

Plot Summary

The novel begins with an extract from Nonie’s Water Logbook that describes “The Beast in the Water,” or a “hypercane”: the biggest hurricane theoretically possible. Nonie then begins to narrate the novel’s events from her point of view. She introduces herself and her ability to sense water-related changes in the weather that often bring floods and storms. She lives in Amen, a small settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. Among the residents of Amen are Nonie’s older sister, Bix, and her father, Alan, whom they call “Father.” Her mother, who died of kidney disease, often told Nonie tales of a research vessel called the Sally Ride, which Nonie reveres as a symbol of hope for the future.

Amen’s residents keep a record of the exhibits and artifacts they preserve in the museum in the Museum Logbook. Nonie keeps her own record of weather and types of water in a volume she calls the Water Logbook.

A hypercane strikes Amen, destroying the roof and killing several residents. Father, Bix, Nonie, and another community member named Keller are the only people who make it off the roof before it disintegrates. They take an Indigenous American canoe from one of the exhibits and use it to escape the museum as it floods. They plan to traverse the flooded US to the safety of Nonie’s aunt’s farm up north.

Nonie recalls the night they came to the AMNH and describes their work to catalogue the exhibits. Her father compares this to the work of the curators who protected the Hermitage Museum during the siege of Leningrad in World War II.

Keller, Father, Nonie, and Bix leave New York by paddling across the flooded city until they reach the Hudson. They let the tide carry them along until they reach the Cloisters, another museum. They approach the settlement there cautiously because Keller is Black, and racism persists among some survivor communities. Those in the Cloisters welcome them for the night, and they see the scriptorium, a collection of travelers’ stories.

The next day, they continue, moving down river in the canoe until they arrive near West Point Military Academy. Nonie senses another storm moving in, but Father and Keller worry about taking shelter in the Academy or surrounding towns. However, the storm forces them to take shelter in a ruined building. Bix and Nonie become separated from Father and Keller. Inside the ruins, two men attack Bix and Nonie. Nonie flees, but the men capture Bix. Nonnie finds Father and Keller, and they run to rescue Bix. Nonie hears gunshots, and Keller and Bix return with Father, who is mortally wounded. One of the two men shot Father, and in the ensuing struggle, Bix disarmed and killed them. While Nonie is alone on the canoe, the stormy weather unmoors it, and Keller must swim out after her. The rough weather nearly overwhelms him, and he inhales water.

Father dies from his wounds, and the others bury him under an oak tree. Keller, Bix, and Nonie then continue. Keller develops pneumonia. Nonie and Bix find a small tower on top of a hill and seek help. Poppy, an archery teacher for a small independent community of survivors composed of deserters from the US Army, lets them in.

Mary, the settlement’s medic, helps treat Keller, but he needs more intervention from a doctor in the nearby settlement of Hancock. Bix has a leg wound, and infection is setting in. Mary takes Bix, Nonie, and Keller downstream and walks with them the rest of the way to Hancock.

When they arrive, they discover that Hancock is a developed settlement that has generators, solar power, and a hospital. A medic named Esther treats Keller for pneumonia and operates on Bix’s septic leg. Hancock’s leader, Childs, arrives. He says that they can treat Keller only if he enters into their debt system. Childs has Mary arrested. Esther shares her escape plan, which involves a hidden wagon. Under the cover of a storm that hits the settlement, they rescue Mary and escape from Hancock. Childs pursues them, and they must kill him.

The group continues north until they reach Mother’s family’s farm and establish a settlement there. Over time, others come to join them, and they set up a hospital. Eventually, a member of the Sally Ride crew and friend of Esther, named Virginia, arrives and offers Nonie on a place on the vessel, which she accepts.