One of Portugal’s first “cli-fi” novels, Water Notebooks takes place in the near future, when the Southern Water Wars, and the the First and Second Event, have forced refugees from the south of Europe to seek assistance in the Nordic countries. Housed in a nondescript “welcome center,” these refugees are kept in the dark about not just their situation, but what’s going on in the world at large, and in the case of the novel’s primary narrator, Sara, where her husband might be.
As she takes care of her daughter and navigates the various cliques and plays for powers that develop among the refugees, Sara fills page after page of her notebooks, writing to her husband, unaware of where he is or what he’s going through.
This dystopic and propulsive novel reaffirms João Reis’s place as one of Portugal’s most inventive writers, working in the tradition of José Saramago, Fernando Pessoa, and António Lobo Antunes.
