TENT CITY CONVOY

A near-future America is transformed into a lawless hellscape as global warming dispossesses hundreds of thousands of people in Willis’ speculative thriller.

In 2086, as the waters of the Atlantic continue to rise, swallowing up entire communities—including Jamestown, Virginia, where Marg Bernard and her family live—the housewife and mother is faced with a nightmarish situation. After her husband drowns attempting to prevent the visitors center where he works from flooding, Marg and her children (15-year-old Susan and 9-year-old Quentin) set out from their dilapidated house to seek sanctuary elsewhere. The journey quickly devolves into a horrifying struggle to survive, as they’re forced to live with a nomadic tent community, enduring frequent hurricanes and the quickly approaching winter while also steering clear of violent locals who are fearful of the influx of migrants into their towns (“We don’t cotton to those gypsies around here”). As Marg desperately tries to find a path that leads to some kind of stability for herself and her children, matters become even more complicated when a figure from her past—a mentally unstable man who sexually assaulted her years earlier—finds her and tries to reestablish what he perceived as love and intimacy with her again. The intensity and complexity of emotions animate the writing—hope and courage constantly do battle with fear, sadness, anger, and despair. The all-too-plausible setting is an obvious strength, as is the dynamic between Marg and her kids, but the narrative has some areas that could be improved. The conclusion is too abrupt and lacks a strong thematic takeaway. There are no enlightening revelations at the novel’s end, just a sense of the difficulty of surviving the horrors of life and finding some kind of happiness and meaning amid the chaos and brutality of existence. But that may very well be the point.

While the thematic impact falls short of its apocalyptic potential, this is still a dark page-turner of a read.