The Morningside by Tea Obreht

The Morningside by Tea Obreht

304 pages

Published March 2024 by Random House Publishing House

Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:

There’s the world you can see. And then there’s the one you can’t. Welcome to the Morningside.

After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower in a place called Island City where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Silvia feels unmoored in her new life because her mother has been so diligently secretive about their family’s past, and because the once-vibrant city where she lives is now half-underwater. Silvia knows almost nothing about the place where she was born and spent her early years, nor does she fully understand why she and her mother had to leave. But in Ena there is an opening: a person willing to give the young girl glimpses into the folktales of her demolished homeland, a place of natural beauty and communal spirit that is lacking in Silvia’s lonely and impoverished reality.

Enchanted by Ena’s stories, Silvia begins seeing the world with magical possibilities and becomes obsessed with the mysterious older woman who lives in the penthouse of the Morningside. Bezi Duras is an enigma to everyone in the building: She has her own elevator entrance and leaves only to go out at night and walk her three massive hounds, often not returning until the early morning. Silvia’s mission to unravel the truth about this woman’s life, and her own haunted past, may end up costing her everything.

My Thoughts: 
This is the third book by Obreht I've read (and reviewed) and, as much as I enjoyed the other two, this was by far my favorite of her books. With each book, Obreht explores new territory and new time periods. Inland was set in the American West's past; The Tiger's Wife was set in the Balkans in more or less present day. The Morningside takes us to an unknown land, some time in the future. 

Climate change has wrecked havoc on the planet, wars have taken a further toll. We never know exactly where on Earth Silvia and her mother have finally settled (it might be New York City); it's not particularly relevant, other than to that they have traveled a great distance from a land called Back Home. Which isn't to say that the setting doesn't play an important role in the story - it's, in fact, crucial for Obreht to give readers a full impression of the landscape and the way that rising waters have impacted Island City. Much of what we learn of Island City is in stories told to The Dispatcher, a renegade radio program that allows listeners to tell stories of the city as they knew it and the city as it is now. 

Silvia's mother has told her very little about why they are constantly moving or anything about their family, other than that Silvia has an aunt, Ena. When the Repopulation Program enables them to move to Island City and live in the Morningside, where Ena is superintendent, Ena opens a door to the past and the mystical. Because of Ena's stories (particularly that the three dogs Bezi takes for a walk every evening are actually men), Silvia comes to believe that Bezi Duras might actually be a Vila, a nature spirit capable of vengeful acts when angered. 

Because Silvia can't be enrolled in school, she has a lot of time on her hands. Some of it is spent helping her mother. A great deal of it is spent exploring and trying to determine the truth about Bezi. Along the way, she is helped by Lewis May, a man who used to the be superintendent of the building and makes an arrangement with Silvia whereby she is given a key to the elevator to Bezi's penthouse floor. Even after their deal is completed, May remains a constant in Silvia's life. 

One day a new family moves into The Morningside, one with a mysterious father who isn't much seen but will come to play a big part in Silvia's future, and a daughter who becomes Silvia's only friend and the driving force behind moving Silvia along in learning the truth about Bezi. 

I wouldn't want to be a bookseller or a librarian trying to figure out where to shelve The Morningside; it is equal parts science-fiction (cli-fi, as some are calling it), fairy tale, and dystopian novel. It has an element of magic that I surprisingly loved and some wonderfully unique characters and situations. I wasn't always sure what to make of it. But I loved that I had no idea where the story was going. Even the ending, which ties things up more neatly than I often like, isn't nearly a happily-ever-after and comes with something extra that makes me rethink things right up to the end of the book. Utterly original and one of my favorites of the year.