Rivers Child

Deep under Norway's Svalbard mountain, the world's plant seeds are preserved in a vault designed to withstand global crises, including the apocalypse. Biologist Mavin Cedarstrom, a long way from his home on the Zuni reservation in New Mexico, is the only human in the vault when that terrible day arrives. After he awakens from cryogenic sleep nearly a thousand years later, the world has changed dramatically. No trees grow taller than three feet, no written histories and technology from Mavin's time remain, and there is widespread famine. But humanity has adapted. Mavin is rescued by Simone Kita, a warrior of a matriarchal society charged with returning seeds to her city in the south. While Simone feels a growing obligation to keep Mavin safe, he struggles with survivor's guilt and a millennium of unanswered questions. Together, the duo travel south into a world of new myths, magic, and intrigue. VERDICT: Winner of the publisher's 2016 Landmark Prize for Fiction, Seller's (Sighing Woman Tea) eco-novel is a thought-provoking dive into a future after the dystopia gives way to hope. Strong storytelling makes this a solid choice for book clubs interested in complex characters, environmental discussions, and gender issues. - Library Journal Mark Seiler has conjured a tale that feels simultaneously ancient and prophetic, plunging readers into a frozen landscape in which both timely and nearly fantastical events take place. One is hard-pressed not to take note of a tale in which the preservation of our future food source and human survival are front and center, especially as the 'Super storms' of which he speaks are roiling outside our windows. -Karen Levy, author of My Father's Gardens River's Child had me thinking deeply about humanity, our past, and our future, all while being caught up in the story of Mavin, a Zuni Indian who travels the starkly altered landscape of a future Earth and stumbles into a pivotal role. On the one hand the story feels like science fiction; on the other the protection of seeds and the urgent quest for abundant growth doesn't read like a far cry from the state of our planet. Underlying the often turbulent story is a steady current of ancient wisdom--a welcome balm. The story plants a seed, in more ways than one. -Katherine Hauswirth, author of The Book of Noticing River's Child carries forward a reverence for the wisdom of older women found in Sighing Woman Tea. While the protagonist of River's Child carries the Y chromosome, the reader finds that accidental genetics power this romp through a post-apocalyptic earth where women wield the power, the past is invisible, famine is the enemy, and seeds might just save the world. -J.D. Smith, editor/writer Whole Earth Catalog Seiler presents a strange and ingenious mix that is part The Road, part Dune. . . This book delivers an inventive and eerie future. -Kirkus Reviews