A dual timeline narrative with deep roots in current global crises, CASCADIA is an absurdist yet all too relatable vision of a future where unchecked capitalism, advanced technology, and climate emergencies have come to a head.
CASCADIA
by Colin Meloy
Little, Brown, Summer 2027
(via Writers House)
Barnaby Chambers is no hero. He’s just another bio broker in Cascadia trying to scrape out a living in an already scraped-thin world. Plummeting birth rates mean the market is rising for anything people believe will promote fertility, especially cauls (the membrane that can cover a newborn’s head). But when a lead on a new caul saddles Barnaby with an abandoned baby, instead, he must navigate the dangerous road home and a difficult AI-run government system in search of someone to care for his unexpected ward.
A decade earlier, in 2043, civilization as we know it is careening towards the cliff of no return. Cascadia is newly formed, having just separated from the United States. Its people are searching for a better method of government to combat climate change and guard against the pitfalls of governance tainted by human self-interest. Two computer scientists meet for the first time: Dr. Emil Franke and nine-year-old prodigy Gershwin Datta. They will change everything.
As the story moves back and forth in time, it becomes clear that Barnaby’s troubles—and the baby he’s rescued—are inextricably linked to Emil and Gershwin’s work. They are all connected. Not just to the fate of Cascadia, but the world.
Colin Meloy is the author of the middle grade novels The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid, The Stars Did Wander Darkling, and the New York Times bestselling Wildwood Chronicles, as well as two picture books, The Golden Thread: A Song for Pete Seeger and Everyone’s Awake! He is also the singer and songwriter for the indie rock band the Decemberists. Colin lives in Oregon with his wife and frequent collaborator, illustrator Carson Ellis, and their sons.
Maybe Archie Coomes has been watching too many horror movies. All of a sudden, the most ordinary things have taken on a sinister edge: a penny on a doormat. A man in a brown suit under a streetlamp. The persistent sound of an axe chopping in the middle of the night. He keeps telling himself that this is Seaham, a sleepy seaside town where nothing ever happens. Or at least nothing did, until his dad’s construction company opened up the cliff beneath the old—some say cursed—Langdon place.