Current:Home > MyBook excerpt: "The Morningside" by Téa Obreht-InfoLens
Book excerpt: "The Morningside" by Téa Obreht
View Date:2024-12-23 22:39:58
We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article.
"The Morningside" (Random House) is the latest novel by Téa Obreht (the New York Times bestselling author of "The Tiger's Wife" and "Inland"), set in a future metropolis ravaged by climate change.
Read an excerpt below.
"The Morningside" by Téa Obreht
$26 at AmazonPrefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now.
Try Audible for freeLong ago, before the desert, when my mother and I first arrived in Island City, we moved to a tower called the Morningside, where my aunt had already been serving as superintendent for about ten years.
The Morningside had been the jewel of an upper-city neighborhood called Battle Hill for more than a century. Save for the descendants of a handful of its original residents, however, the tower was, and looked, deserted. It reared above the park and the surrounding townhomes with just a few lighted windows skittering up its black edifice like notes of an unfinished song, here-and-there brightness all the way to the thirty third floor, where Bezi Duras's penthouse windows blazed, day and night, in all directions.
By the time we arrived, most people, especially those for whom such towers were intended, had fled the privation and the rot and the rising tide and gone upriver to scattered little freshwater townships. Those holding fast in the city belonged to one of two groups: people like my aunt and my mother and me, refuge seekers recruited from abroad by the federal Repopulation Program to move in and sway the balance against total urban abandonment, or the stalwart handful of locals hanging on in their shrinking neighborhoods, convinced that once the right person was voted into the mayor's office and the tide pumps got working again, things would at least go back to the way they had always been.
The Morningside had changed hands a number of times and was then in the care of a man named Popovich. He was from Back Home, in the old country, which was how my aunt had come to work for him.
Ena was our only living relative—or so I assumed, because she was the only one my mother ever talked about, the one in whose direction we were always moving as we ticked around the world. As a result, she had come to occupy valuable real estate in my imagination. This was helped by the fact that my mother, who never volunteered intelligence of any kind, had given me very little from which to assemble my mental prototype of her. There were no pictures of Ena, no stories. I wasn't even sure if she was my mother's aunt, or mine, or just a sort of general aunt, related by blood to nobody. The only time I'd spoken to her, when we called from Paraiso to share the good news that our Repopulation papers had finally come through, my mother had waited until the line began to ring before whispering, "Remember, her wife just died, so don't forget to mention Beanie," before thrusting the receiver into my hand. I'd never even heard of the wife, this "Beanie" person, until that very moment.
Excerpt from "The Morningside" by Téa Obreht, copyright © 2024 by Téa Obreht. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint of Random House Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Get the book here:
"The Morningside" by Téa Obreht
$26 at Amazon $26 at Barnes & NobleBuy locally from Bookshop.org
For more info:
"The Morningside" by Téa Obreht (Random House), in Hardcover, Large Print Trade Paperback, eBook and Audio formats
veryGood! (661)
Related
- Democrat Ruben Gallego wins Arizona US Senate race against Republican Kari Lake
- Steven Hurst, who covered world events for The Associated Press, NBC and CNN, has died at 77
- Mormon church leaders encourage civility as Trump and Harris rally religious voters
- Pennsylvania school boards up window openings that allowed views into its gender-neutral bathrooms
- Georgia remains part of College Football Playoff bracket projection despite loss
- Jason Momoa Gets Flirty in Girlfriend Adria Arjoa's Comments Section
- Officer who killed Daunte Wright is taking her story on the road with help from a former prosecutor
- 'Dream come true:' New Yorker flies over 18 hours just to see Moo Deng in Thailand
- Gavin Rossdale Makes Rare Public Appearance With Girlfriend Xhoana Xheneti
- Retired New Jersey State Police trooper who stormed Capitol is sentenced to probation
Ranking
- Prosecutor failed to show that Musk’s $1M-a-day sweepstakes was an illegal lottery, judge says
- 2 sisters from Egypt were among those killed in Mexican army shooting
- Early Amazon Prime Day Travel Deals as Low as $4—86% Off Wireless Phone Chargers, Luggage Scales & More
- Supreme Court candidates dodge, and leverage, political rhetoric
- Are Ciara Ready and Russell Wilson Ready For Another Baby? She Says…
- 'Dream come true:' New Yorker flies over 18 hours just to see Moo Deng in Thailand
- Christina Hall Lists Her Tennessee Home for Sale Amid Divorce From Josh Hall
- 2 sisters from Egypt were among those killed in Mexican army shooting
Recommendation
-
Deion Sanders addresses trash thrown at team during Colorado's big win at Texas Tech
-
Yankees' newest October hero Luke Weaver delivers in crazy ALDS opener
-
Some perplexed at jury’s mixed verdict in trial for 3 former officers in Tyre Nichols’ death
-
In Competitive Purple Districts, GOP House Members Paint Themselves Green
-
Full House's John Stamos Shares Message to Costar Dave Coulier Amid Cancer Battle
-
A month before the election, is late-night comedy ready to laugh through the storm?
-
Takeaways from AP’s report on affordable housing disappearing across the U.S.
-
Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers turn up in Game 1 win vs. rival Padres: Highlights