Fragile: A Novel

A man responsible for keeping New York City alive falls for an underground activist from the wrong side of the East River in this compelling fiction debut about love, loss, and resilience in the face of ecological crisis.

New York in 2057—a metropolis divided. Sheltered by enormous seawalls, Manhattan is green, clean, and thriving, but the eastern boroughs have been given up to the rising Atlantic. The planet has been ravaged by climate change, causing a global scarcity of pharmaceuticals, food, and other essentials for survival.

Shavir Tayard, barista and urban community farmer by day, rescuer of animals by night, is on a dog liberation raid in the coastal evacuation zone of Brooklyn when she sustains an injury that changes her relationship with the cute regular at her coffee shop—and her life.

Jake Alvaro is a troubled Homeland Security agent tasked with securing critical medical drugs for New York in a world running out of everything. His view of whose lives must be saved and who can be sacrificed is challenged when Shavir takes him across the East River to the people he was told to ignore. Soon, he begins to question the fragile truths he built his life upon.

Set in a divided near-future New York, FRAGILE tells a story of commitment and connection against all odds. When you find meaning in a world on the brink of collapse, do you risk everything for it?

"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