The Annual Migration of Clouds
by Premee Mohamed
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Pub Date 28 Sep 2021 | Archive Date 3 May 2021
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Description
“This packs a punch.” — Publishers Weekly
“One of the most unique and engaging voices in genre fiction.” — Booklist
“In this rich and nuanced universe, Mohamed offers an emotionally fierce and human story that takes the time and space to personalize apocalypse.” — STARRED review, Quill & Quire
A novella set in post–climate disaster Alberta; a woman infected with a mysterious parasite must choose whether to pursue a rare opportunity far from home or stay and help rebuild her community
The world is nothing like it once was: climate disasters have wracked the continent, causing food shortages, ending industry, and leaving little behind. Then came Cad, mysterious mind-altering fungi that invade the bodies of the now scattered citizenry. Reid, a young woman who carries this parasite, has been given a chance to get away — to move to one of the last remnants of pre-disaster society — but she can’t bring herself to abandon her mother and the community that relies on her. When she’s offered a coveted place on a dangerous and profitable mission, she jumps at the opportunity to set her family up for life, but how can Reid ask people to put their trust in her when she can’t even trust her own mind?
With keen insight and biting prose, Premee Mohamed delivers a deeply personal tale in this post-apocalyptic hopepunk novella that reflects on the meaning of community and asks what we owe to those who have lifted us up.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781770415935 |
| PRICE | US$15.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
imyril (, Reviewer
The Annual Migration of Clouds is a post-apocalyptic tale of survival and tough choices in an uncaring world, but it's one built around acts of faith and love. This is a world that may be broken, but it still has something to offer.
Reid lives in a riverside community built on an old university campus. Life is fragile, dependent on shared labour and carefully managed calories. For Reid and her mother, who both carry the parasite cad, it is more fragile than most: any day could be the one that the delicate green tracery under their skin goes wild and kills them.
When Reid receives an unheard of invitation to join the fabled university - an actual university teaching and conducting research within the safety of a dome, not just a city in the ruins of one - the news is greeted with disbelief, disapproval, outright betrayal. Nobody leaves. Reid feels judged and found wanting merely for having received the offer, regardless of whether she chooses to accept it.
The novella unpicks the various burdens of guilt and duty as Reid is torn between love, rage and fear, alternately supported and undermined by those who know and love her best. The result is a searing depiction of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, caught between childish mistakes and adult ambitions, confused about her feelings for her best friend and her increasingly charged relationship with her mother. It's about the decisions we make that shape our lives, and the forces that shape the context in which we make them.
Premee Mohamed's prose is a delight, as is her knack of cutting straight to the heart of her story with loving banter and vicious truths. And if that's not enough for you, there's feral pigs and a magnificently grumpy lesbian couple who are much too old for anyone else's nonsense.
Looks like all my favourite novellas this year are going to have been written by Premee Mohamed. And that's fine by me.
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