A new dystopian novel by Eiren Caffall, All the Water in the World, delves into a future shaped by the devastating effects of climate change, where cities are submerged and humanity faces an uncertain existence. The inspiration for Caffall’s debut fiction work came from a personal experience—superstorm Sandy’s destruction of her childhood home in New York City. The sight of a city in crisis left her grappling with a profound question: What will we save when the world is underwater?
In All the Water in the World, Caffall paints a bleak yet thought-provoking vision of a world where climate change is unchecked, and rising seas have engulfed major urban centers. Amid the chaos and destruction, former curators and researchers from the American Museum of Natural History seek refuge on the museum’s roof, banding together to preserve the artifacts that hold humanity’s history.
“Museums are… the repositories of our collective understandings, evidence of discoveries, warehouses of materials that will fuel discoveries in the future,” writes Caffall in the novel. “They hold the past in trust for the future.”
In a conversation with host Kerri Miller, Caffall explained her desire to portray a different kind of narrative in dystopian fiction. Rather than focusing on scenes of widespread violence and chaos, Caffall emphasizes the resilience and collaboration that often emerge in the wake of catastrophe.
“The narratives we have in popular culture about what disasters do to people are mostly incorrect,” Caffall argues. “There isn’t usually vast looting or mass violence. There’s usually a coming together of people trying to remake community, trying to support each other, trying to think about what happens in the aftermath.”
For Caffall, this more hopeful depiction of human connection and survival offers a critical lens on the rebuilding process, one she believes often gets overshadowed by more destructive portrayals. “To me, that’s a more interesting, more important, maybe more feminine story about what it takes to rebuild.”
Caffall’s novel provides a glimpse of hope amidst a grim future, suggesting that even in the most trying times, humanity’s capacity to preserve culture, history, and community endures.
