The Colorado River has been cut down to nothing and the states have gone to war over what’s left, legally and otherwise. Nevada has water knives — Angel Velasquez is one — men who show up with a court order and a crew and shut a town’s supply off for good. Phoenix is dying and full of Texas refugees nobody wants. A journalist named Lucy is documenting the collapse, and a Texan girl named Maria is trying to survive it, and all three converge on a rumor about senior water rights old enough to override everybody. The plumbing in it is real, which is what makes it land. It’s a much pulpier treatment than his The Windup Girl—it has dystopian screenplay written all over it.
The Water Knife