A drowning metropolis, a project unfinished, and an unbreakable commitment to stay—in “Awake in the Floating City,” the ravishing new novel by Susanna Kwan, the story takes the reader into a San Francisco during a flooding, not-too distant future.
“Awake in the Floating City: A Novel” (Pantheon, 320 pages, $28, May 13, 2025) tells the story of Bo, a multimedia artist living in one of the city’s few remaining open high-rise apartment buildings. Even as she tries to finish her latest project, people around her continue to leave the city; new storms wreak havoc, the building’s elevators go out of service, and rooftop markets are the only sources of food.
Her cousin offers a plan for escape—but then Bo meets Mia, an elderly woman living in her building. Mia’s in desperate need of a caregiver, and in a twist of fate, Bo accepts the job, although the risks continue to get greater, and Mia shows no signs of improving.
Kwan, who has lived in San Francisco for much of her life, knows the city well, and in a recent phone call, said the book grew out of her questions about what the future holds.
“I decided to ask a question about the ones future generations would be asking,” she explained. “My family’s been here for a long time, but we’ve seen the city change: every few years it feels like there’s a whole new narrative. So I think it’s a recognizable San Francisco for people familiar with the area—and I think it’s a realistic extension of the world we currently live in emotionally.”
The relationship between Bo and Mia—who reveals that she’s 130 years old—is central to the story. “Bo is an artist, and I think that she’s never lived anywhere else,” said Kwan. “She’s lost others when the book starts, and I really see her as somebody who could be my child, or the child of friends who are my age. I wanted her to have a connection to somebody who had lived in the city a long time. And that was Mia; she’s a one-woman encyclopedia of San Francisco history, and her recollections and insights are priceless.”
With the meeting of these two very different characters, the author says the story “gave me the opportunity to give them a direct relationship, to share their own stories, and to ask ‘What is the point of art?’” Asking those questions, the book acquires an almost unbearable tension—to see Bo meet her project deadline, and to see Mia through to the end. Both are suffused with love and longing, and they come together in surprising ways.
Kwan says she drew on her own memories to illuminate the city and spent months researching its history. “San Francisco’s a big city, and there are so many narratives about the Gold Rush, 1960s counterculture, the tech industry,” she said. “None of that really fit. But the version I know intimately—anyone’s experience of a place is so personal—offered all of these little details, and I wanted a place to layer them: things that might not appear in popular films or the news or even in books.”
One essential source, Kwan said, was the San Francisco Main Library, where she spent months researching the book. “I was remembering the ways I move around the city,” she said. “I’d walk down the street and say, ‘Oh, this used to be a bookstore,’ or ‘That was a preschool.’ I remember going as a kid to the Main Library’s building, which is now the Asian Art Museum.” Both are among her favorite places in the city.
Using the library’s digital collection, she conducted much of her research during the pandemic. The collection, she said, “has incredible photos, and then I checked out a lot of books on Chinese-American history. I also spent a lot of time writing in the library; not necessarily the main branch, but in branches all over town. That was great.”
Kwan, who started the book in 2018, says she’s been surprised by the diversity of responses from friends and trade reviews.
“People are really interested in the climate angle,” she said, “and some have said the caregiving aspect really stood out. That’s something I find really gratifying, because the central relationship is between Bo and Mia. That labor of care is something all of us experience at stages in our own lives. Others have focused on Bo’s art project—the history and memories that come up with her work.
“Sometimes I think I put a lot in this book,” she said. “And there’s a lot I deleted as well.”
Susanna Kwan speaks about “Awake in the Floating City” at 7 p.m. May 12 at Green Apple Books, 1231 Ninth Ave., San Francisco; 6 p.m. May 13 at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera and 6 p.m. May 21 at Kepler’s, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park.
The post Susanna Kwan tackles climate change, art, caregiving and San Francisco’s future in debut novel appeared first on Local News Matters.