"Chillingly recognizable . . . In twenty years—or less—people will have a hard time believing that this is a work of the imagination. That's how convincingly Barnes plays out the signs and omens of our times." —Tim Johnston, New York Times–bestselling author Here is a mesmerizing novel of unfolding dystopia amid the effects of climate change in a world very like our own, for readers of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven and Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood. In this prequel to Eric Barnes's acclaimed cli-fi novel The City Where We Once Lived , six sets of characters move through a landscape and a country just beginning to show the signs of cataclysmic change. A father and his young children fleeing a tsunami after a massive earthquake in the Gulf. A woman and her husband punishing themselves without relent for the loss of both their sons to addiction, while wildfires slowly burn closer to their family home. A brilliant investor, assessing opportunity in the risk to crops, homes, cities, industries, and infrastructure, working in the silent comfort of her office sixty floors up in the scorching air. A doctor and his wife stuck in a refugee camp for immigrants somewhere in a southern desert. Two young men working the rides for a roadside carnival, one escaping a brutal past, the other a racist present. The manager of a chain of nondescript fast-food restaurants in a city ravaged by the relentless wind. While every night the news alternates images of tsunami destruction with the baseball scores, the characters converge on a city where the forces of change have already broken—a city half abandoned, with one part left to be scavenged as the levee system protecting it slowly fails—until, in their vehicles on the highway that runs through it, they witness the approach of what looks to be just one more violent storm. "A first-rate apocalyptic page-turner . . . Barnes’s spare and chilling prose flows from one horrific scene to another without, surprisingly, alienating his readers, perhaps because the heart of his narrative ultimately reveals an abiding faith in the power of human compassion.” — Booklist “A multilayered and deftly crafted dystopian novel that will prove to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to community library Science Fiction collections. . . . All too plausible.”— Midwest Book Review "Chillingly recognizable . . . In twenty years—or less—people will have a hard time believing that this is a work of the imagination. That's how convincingly Barnes plays out the signs and omens of our times." — Tim Johnston, New York Times –bestselling author of The Current “ Above the Ether depicts a dystopia more terrifying because of its proximity to our own, yet this novel is also saturated by hope. In this world, people can rise above their pasts, and humanity can endure change and hardship. Barnes is also just a terrific writer of both story and sentence."— Elise Blackwell, author of The Lower Quarter and Hunger "There is poetry on these pages as well as great understanding of humanity and compassion for the human condition."— Tonstant Weader Reviews "In this dark vision of the near future, the apocalypse does not entail an angry God bent on holy punishment. Greed and blindness alone can push our species to end times."— Chapter 16   Praise for The City Where We Once Lived “Barnes has constructed an intricate apocalyptic world that frighteningly mirrors present-day reality.”— Shelf Awareness , starred review “In bare-bones prose that is subtly affecting, the novel is a haunting portrait of why people form bonds and the many ways those bonds can be torn apart. . . . A story of adaption and the power of the human spirit.”— Foreword "Barnes’s violent, haunted, and creepy novel about failing societies will attract readers of dark, post-apocalyptic fiction."— Library Journal “Exceptional . . . From the first pages all the way to the last, I was drawn in. I have read some dystopian future books in the past, but  The City Where We Once Lived  stands out among them."— Seattle Book Review “An all too realistic novel that could easily be ripped from future newspaper headlines, The City Where We Once Lived is a compelling read from first page to last and reveals author Eric Barnes to have a genuine flair for narrative driven storytelling. . . . Very highly recommended.”— Midwest Book Review "Barnes's new novel is a rare and truly original work: a hard-edged fable, tender and unflinching, in which a man's descent and renewal is mirrored by his city. An eerie, beautifully written, and profoundly humane book."— Emily St. John Mandel, author of National Book Award finalist Station Eleven "Written in a gorgeously spare language that perfectly reflects the dystopic future this novel depicts, The City Where We Once Lived kept me enthralled throughout. At its core is a deep and admirable compassion for humanity."— Chris Offutt, author of Country Dar