National Book Award winner Glass (A House Among the Trees) adds mystery and adventure to an engrossing near-future story of the perils of climate change. Covid-19 is in the rearview, but things are far from the old normal. Serial terrorist bombings target New York City's Union Square, Cambridge's Harvard Yard, and other places throughout the U.S. as a catastrophic tsunami threatens the Northeast. Austin Kepner, a renowned architect of houses for clients seeking "postmarital solitude," welcomes his stepson, Brecht, back to their small "almost island" Massachusetts fishing town after he drops out of college. There, Brecht discovers "weird weather, weird politics, and weird relationships." The last involves strangers who show up, among them Petra Coyle, who claims to be a journalist commissioned to do a documentary on Austin; Ernesto Soltera, a purported old friend of a local landscaper; and Issa, an artist's model with no navel and "pearly skin," who the locals believe is a selkie, a creature from Celtic myth that's half-person, half-seal. As the story unfolds, Glass skillfully reveals Issa's connections to Petra and Austin, and a heart-pounding hostage episode ratchets up the tension as multiple secret identities and several romantic triangles are exposed, leading to a satisfying conclusion. Both nightmarish and enjoyable, this will have readers hooked for the long haul. (May)

In finely detailed yet translucent descriptions of Vigil Harbor, an old coastal Massachusetts town, Glass summons a near-future ravaged by environmental devastation and "political extremes." Fledgling poet Brecht, the first narrator in this gracefully polyphonic novel, has left college in New York City and returned home after a deadly bombing. Petra, having lost her wife and her bearings, infiltrates Vigil Harbor's cocoon, seeking revenge against prominent architect Austin for the harm she believes he did long ago to her first love, Issa, an artist whose identification with the endangered creatures of the sea was strange and alarming. Mike, a scientist working for an ocean preservation group, and flinty former English teacher Margo regroup after being betrayed by their spouses. Landscaper Celestino is taken aback when Ernesto appears, claiming to be a climate scientist. Glass circles among her complex, conflicted characters, including two from her earlier novel, The Widower's Tale (2010), as violence threatens this once insulated enclave. A novelist of fluid compassion adept at creating plots anchored in the ordinary but driven into disaster, Glass adds a drop of mythology to the whirl of this intricately suspenseful story. With sorrow and humor, beauty and fury rendered in prose as exquisitely nuanced and mutable as the seacoast setting, Glass dramatizes the psychic toll of climate change.

Glass sets her newest in a post-pandemic, pre-apocalyptic, terrorism-ridden, not-so-distant future. On the cusp of ecological disaster, young adults lack the motivation to launch themselves into independent lives. Terrorists protesting the destruction of the planet set off bombs regularly. Food is becoming scarce; violent weather is frequent. In the town of Vigil Harbor--a self-insulated historic community in coastal Massachusetts--inhabitants struggle to maintain life as it was while doing their best to ignore life as it has become. When two strangers arrive in town, they bring with them seeds of disruption, and, in the ensuing crisis, it takes a village to solve one of their potentially deadly problems. National Book Award winner Glass (Three Junes) creates a community of privileged, mostly white inhabitants who find that change is hard; when confronted with disaster, they work together to protect the status quo. Point-of-view chapters allow access to the viewpoints of multiple generations and classes, which are read by a myriad of skilled narrators: Cassandra Campbell, Kimberly Farr, Jeremy Davidson, January LaVoy, Michael Crouch, Kirsten Potter, Mark Deakins, Hillary Huber, and Alec Glass. VERDICT Readers of general fiction will enjoy Glass's novel; recommended for all collections.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

An insular Massachusetts coastal town finds the world's woes at its doorstep. Judging by references scattered through the opening chapters with Glass' usual deftness, the time is about 10 years after the pandemic first hit. Climate change has become more devastating, political polarization is worse than ever, and terrorist attacks have multiplied. As the story progresses via no less than eight narrators, each sharply individualized, we are reminded that eventually the bizarre becomes normal. A monster storm three years ago blew down multiple buildings and docks in Vigil Harbor, but a local tycoon wants to build his post-divorce mansion on the cliffside anyway. His is one of a rash of marital splits that are the talk of the town, but no one bats an eyelash when a new couple formed from the remains of two divorces runs off to a survivalist commune--"one of those psycho wilderness camps," as college dropout Brecht puts it. He's a member of "Generation NL (out loud: nil)," young adults with no expectations of a livable future. Brecht was at NYU "the year of the Union Square attack," having lost his father when he was 8 to the first coronavirus wave. He returns to Vigil Harbor and goes to work for Celestino, the foreign-born landscaper who works on Brecht's stepfather Austin's fancy architecture projects. Even though he's married to a U.S. citizen, Celestino is in danger; immigrants are now totally barred, "visa raids" ongoing. There's lots more plot to come. The alleged journalist in town doing a profile of Austin is in fact pursuing him to avenge the mysterious woman they both loved and lost. An "old friend" turns up looking for Celestino, who is emphatically not happy to see him. We slowly learn there's more to Brecht's inertia than was apparent at first. The two big plot twists are more predictable than they should be, but Glass' sharply drawn portraits of people coping as best they can with a world in crisis will convince most readers to go along happily for the ride. Provocative themes, strong characterizations, and propulsive storytelling combine for another great read from Glass. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.