Fragile: A Novel

"Engrossing."—Kirkus Reviews
"A striking fiction debut."—BookLife
"Undeniably timely, imaginative, and compelling."—The Black List 

New York, 2057: Sheltered by seawalls, Manhattan is green, clean, and thriving, but Brooklyn and Queens have been given up to the hurricanes and the rising Atlantic. In this divided city, Jake Alvaro works a grueling job at Homeland Security because he is brilliant at securing critical medical drugs in a broken world running out of everything. Haunted by the loss of his family, he cannot afford to care for anyone, least of all a woman who is keeping secrets from him.

Shavir Tayard fights for the disenfranchised and discarded as a member of Roots, a community farm in Brooklyn whose members risk charges of terrorism for their underground work in the coastal evacuation zones. The last thing Shavir needs in her life is an overworked, traumatized Homeland guy, but when she takes Jake across the East River to the communities he was ordered to ignore, they both start to question the fragile truths they build their lives upon.

Fragile is a gripping speculative thriller, a thought-provoking look into our precarious future, and an unflinching examination of our deep need for love and connection in times of social and environmental upheaval.

"This striking fiction debut sets a character-rich story of connection and political awakening in a dystopian future New York where Manhattan and Brooklyn are behind seawalls and the Earth has been ravaged by climate change and resource scarcity."—BOOKLIFE

"An engrossing book that holds out hope despite all the mistakes made by humans."—KIRKUS REVIEWS

"A compelling near-future dystopia about climate collapse and helping the vulnerable survive"—INDEPENDENT BOOK REVIEW

"Alexa Weik von Mossner's debut novel is, by turns, thrilling, thoughtful, romantic, terrifying, and imagi­native. Pick Fragile up at your own peril—I promise that you won't want to put it down." —KAREEM TAYYAR, Author of The Prince of Orange County

"Weik von Mossner's gripping novel hits the target on the most urgent problems of scale that come with climate change. Fragile takes climate fiction to a new level: a fast-paced, suspenseful must-read for anyone interested in our planet's future." —URSULA K. HEISE, Author of Imagining Extinction

"Fragile is a scarily topical tale of what soon may come to be in our fast-changing world. And it's also a moving love story between two people from opposite sides of the track, both trying desperately to save the world they love. I read it with huge enjoyment.—SUSANNAH WATERS, Author of Cold Comfort