The Water Knife

by Paolo Bacigalupi

3.25 of 5 stars 4 ratings • 2 reviews • 14 shelved
Book cover for The Water Knife

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From the international bestselling author of the Hugo and Nebula award-winning The Windup Girl, comes an electrifying thriller set in a world on the edge of collapse.

WATER IS POWER

The American Southwest has been decimated by drought, Nevada and Arizona skirmish over dwindling shares of the Colorado River, while California watches.

When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in Phoenix, Las Vegas water knife Angel Velasquez is sent to investigate.

With a wallet full of identities and a tricked-out Tesla, Angel arrows south, hunting for answers that seem to evaporate as the heat index soars and the landscape becomes more and more oppressive. There, Angel encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist who knows far more about Phoenix's water secrets than she admits, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas migrant who dreams of escaping north to those places where water still falls from the sky.

As bodies begin to pile up and bullets start flying, the three find themselves pawns in a game far bigger, more corrupt, and dirtier than any of them could have imagined. With Phoenix teetering on the verge of collapse and time running out, their only hope for survival rests in one another's hands.

But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only truth in the desert is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink.

  • ISBN10 0356501744
  • ISBN13 9780356501741
  • Publish Date 28 May 2015 (first published 1 January 2015)
  • Publish Status Withdrawn
  • Out of Print 29 March 2021
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Orbit
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 384
  • Language English