With the implosion of the cities, Sarah Jac and James become jimadors migrant workers harvesting maguey (also known as the century plant) on the ranches of the Southwestern United States in the not-too-distant future. An environmental cataclysm has devastated the country west of the Mississippi River. In conditions that put the Dust Bowl of the 1930s to shame, maguey, which produces a liquid that, \u201cwhen distilled, becomes pulque, mescal, or, if you are rich, tequila as clear as a tear,\u201d is one of the few crops still viable. Blueberries are extinct, and people literally go crazy from the heat. The jimadors are at the mercy of the ranch foremen, and a terrible accident sends Sarah Jac and James running for their lives.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The fugitives wash up at the Real Marvelous, a ranch outside Valentine, Texas, which the jimadors believe to be cursed. \u201cThere could be something wrong here, in this very dirt,\u201d Sarah Jac thinks, and \u201call that wrongness might be just about to bubble up, ooze from hacked maguey, or seep skyward through the deep, dry cracks in the ground.\u201d A couple forged in extremity, Sarah Jac and James plan to save enough money to escape to the east, \u201ctoward the ocean \u2026 and pick fruit off trees and dive into cold breaking waves.\u201d But when one of their cons seems to work too well, Sarah Jac and James must overcome her recklessness and his temptation to survive.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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All the Wind in the World<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, the new novel from Dallas\u2019s Samantha Mabry, has just been longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award in Young People\u2019s Literature. Mabry\u2019s dystopian world, reminiscent of both John Steinbeck\u2019s The Grapes of Wrath<\/em> and Claire Vaye Watkins\u2019s Gold Fame Citrus<\/em>, is steeped in the native magic of the Southwest. Darkly atmospheric, the climactic conditions inspire superstition\u2014a regression into attempts to appease the gods, seeking a savior and a scapegoat.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Mabry creates complex characters we want to root for, and when they disappoint us the hurt is visceral. Sarah Jac and James, as well as friends and foes, prophets and witches, are no longer children. Forced to grow up too soon, their endurance requires what Sarah Jac calls \u201chard hearts,\u201d because \u201cdesperate people turn, like an apple gone to rot from the inside out.\u201d How to separate caution from paranoia when survival depends upon trust and necessary vulnerability?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe desert \u2026 seems so simple and boring, but really it\u2019s full of secrets,\u201d Sarah Jac tells us. In All the Wind in the World<\/em>, the desert is a character, and so is the wind, which, \u201cwhen it hits the right speed, sounds like a string section playing in a minor key.\u201d Dust storms, \u201chazy, rust-colored curtain[s] extending from the ground to the sky,\u201d roar, and \u201cplow into you, burrow into the folds of your clothing, and stick in the spaces between your teeth.\u201d Mabry\u2019s metaphors sing; her descriptions haunt.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mabry\u2019s fast-paced plot is straightforward and uncluttered, but packs plenty of twists. The immediacy of Sarah Jac\u2019s first-person narration is powerful and absorbing. The climax is a shocking act of desperation that makes a mostly satisfying ending possible, if only for a very few. As with all things in All the Wind in the World<\/em>, it\u2019s unsentimental and complicated, and a resonant warning of possible futures without the \u201cluxury of expectations.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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