After the Flood: A Novel (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
The world as we know it today is gone. In its place is a world of water with merciless Raiders claiming rule over everyone and everything in their path. Myra and her daughter Pearl live a quiet life on their boat, fishing and trading. Myra trusts no one, not since her husband left her pregnant and alone, taking their 5-year-old daughter, Row with him. Eight years may have passed, but that doesn't mean Myra has given up. She is determined to rescue her eldest daughter from a horrible fate. But will she have to sacrifice one daughter to save the other? I thoroughly enjoyed this novel of one woman's determination to embark on a journey filled with hardships at every turn. After the Flood is a climate change dystopian sparking a torrent of heart pounding action, nail biting anticipation, suspicion and deceit, all with a fierce mother at the helm!
— Jen Steele
An intriguing, innovative dystopian novel set in the USA after a dire climate prognosis comes true. Massive flooding leaves coasts and cities under water and countries drastically reduced in size. This is a world filled with loss, deprivation, and violence. Myra and her seven-year daughter, Pearl, live on a boat, trading the fish they catch for supplies. Their solitary life changes when Myra decides to search for the daughter taken from her before Pearl was born. This decision and her decision to join a group of people searching for a safe place to create community causes her to struggle with how to balance her responsibility and love for each of her daughters as well as what she owes the community of people she has come to depend on. A well-written debut novel.
— Kathy HerbstSeptember 2019 Indie Next List
“A gripping story of one mother’s harrowing journey to survive a flooded earth and save her daughters from the dangers that surround them. Life after the great flood is treacherous, and lethal groups of raiders steal food, medicine, and children, killing those who would stand in their way. With flawed, relatable characters, After the Flood is a real thought-provoker. It demands you ask yourself: What would I do to survive? This passionate tale of survival and determination is not one to miss.”
— Kelli O'Malley, Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, WI
Description
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
An inventive and riveting epic saga, After the Flood signals the arrival of an extraordinary new talent.
A little more than a century from now, our world has been utterly transformed. After years of slowly overtaking the continent, rising floodwaters have obliterated America’s great coastal cities and then its heartland, leaving nothing but an archipelago of mountaintop colonies surrounded by a deep expanse of open water.
Stubbornly independent Myra and her precocious seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, fish from their small boat, the Bird, visiting dry land only to trade for supplies and information in the few remaining outposts of civilization. For seven years, Myra has grieved the loss of her oldest daughter, Row, who was stolen by her father after a monstrous deluge overtook their home in Nebraska. Then, in a violent confrontation with a stranger, Myra suddenly discovers that Row was last seen in a far-off encampment near the Arctic Circle. Throwing aside her usual caution, Myra and Pearl embark on a perilous voyage into the icy northern seas, hoping against hope that Row will still be there.
On their journey, Myra and Pearl join forces with a larger ship and Myra finds herself bonding with her fellow seekers who hope to build a safe haven together in this dangerous new world. But secrets, lust, and betrayals threaten their dream, and after their fortunes take a shocking—and bloody—turn, Myra can no longer ignore the question of whether saving Row is worth endangering Pearl and her fellow travelers.
A compulsively readable novel of dark despair and soaring hope, After the Flood is a magnificent, action packed, and sometimes frightening odyssey laced with wonder—an affecting and wholly original saga both redemptive and astonishing.
About the Author
Kassandra Montag is an award-winning poet, fiction writer, and freelance medical journalist. Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Midwestern Gothic, Nebraska Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and Mystery Weekly Magazine, among others. She holds an MA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Creighton University, and makes her home in Omaha, Nebraska.
Praise For…
“The searing, often brutal story of a mother’s terrifying quest to find her missing daughter in a post-apocalyptic world. Haunting and shocking. — Liv Constantine, Bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish
“Spellbinding and aching at every turn, After the Flood is an evocative tale of despair and fierce hope existing within a shattered future. Kassandra Montag weaves together a watery, post-apocalyptic world that will leave readers breathless.” — Lydia Kang, author of A Beautiful Poison
“An undeniable, brilliantly written tale of trauma and grief. In a world under water, Myra not only learns how to survive—and all the nitty-gritties that entails while sailing over what used to be North America amid raiders, scoundrels, predators, and worse--but she must also learn to trust herself and the others on her journey. We do the same along with her. Myra is one of the most memorable heroines we’ve met in years, and After the Flood a story about the pursuit of redemption you will want to come back to again and again.” — Theodore Wheeler, author of Kings of Broken Things
“In Montag’s thrilling debut, a woman reluctantly joins forces with the crew of a ship large enough to ferry her toward the one thing she wants. As in the very best adventure novels, Myra and the crew of the Sedna are beset by troubles, both those they stumble across and more pressingly, those of their own making. If the center of this novel is one mother’s quest to recover the daughter stolen from her, the heart of it is the truth that, as unrecognizable as the world may become, what is most human in us—our loves, our fears, our strengths, and our failings—can be neither drowned nor outrun” — Liz Kay, author of Monsters: A Love Story
“A soaring, brilliantly imagined novel about love and desperation, set in an astonishing new world that still feels utterly gripping and contemporary. Kassandra Montag is a visionary new talent!” — Karin Slaughter, International bestselling author of The Last Widow
“A promising debut…an intriguing and innovative woman-centered swashbuckling quest narrative, centers on the social impact of climate change a little over a century from now. — Publishers Weekly
“Debut novelist Montag manages to marry page-turning drama and emotional depth, vividly imagining a world where society rebuilds itself from scratch and history repeats.” — Kirkus
“Montag’s thrilling debut takes place in a future climate-change-altered world overrun by water… Anchored by a complicated, compelling heroine, this gripping, speculative, high-seas adventure is impossible to put down.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Gripping… An adventure rife with great peril and high emotional stakes, this postapocalyptic novel reads like a fast-paced screenplay: intense, visceral, and relentless.” — Library Journal
