What would you do if all the water that wasn't bottled suddenly disappeared? In this tense debut thriller, Benjamin Warner, creative writing instructor at Towson University in Maryland, takes this premise and spins a fast-paced story about Eddie Chapman and his wife, Laura. After being stuck in a traffic jam for hours on his way home from work, Eddie can no longer wait for the police and ambulances to arrive. His phone is dead, so he has no way to call home, where he knows Laura will be waiting and worrying about him. Having run track in college, Eddie thinks he has the stamina to run the eight or nine miles to his house, so he abandons his car and sets off. He encounters clusters of people along the way, standing on the highway and then on the town's streets. They are all experiencing the same problems: no cell service, no electricity and no responses from any of the powers that be--police, ambulances, the power company or the water company. Worse yet, there's no water in anyone's taps. Even the stream bed near Eddie's home is empty. "Usually, the stream poured over a spillway there, but that wide slope of cement was dry. Over its edge, where the water should have pooled, was only whitish sand... there was no water on the other side of the road. A thin rust-colored scar ran through the sand where it should have flowed." The trees and bushes along the banks have turned to powdery ash, as if a great fire had ripped through the area, instantly incinerating everything in its path.
Once Eddie is reunited with Laura, the couple must contend with their increasing thirst and with their neighbors, who are also struggling with the lack of water and the rising temperatures outside.
Warner gives us a beautiful portrayal of a couple desperate for water, or anything that might quench their thirst, as they fade in and out of consciousness due to dehydration. The author does a stellar job of depicting the chaos that would ensue if water suddenly disappeared, with no explanations as to how or why it vanished or when it might return. The ways that strangers and neighbors alike respond to the crisis are reminiscent of moments in history when blackouts have stopped a city from functioning, and the way that the Chapmans respond to the primeval need to drink is horrific and realistic at the same time. Make sure a tall glass of something cold is nearby when before enjoying Thirst. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer
Shelf Talker: When all water instantly disappears, a man and his wife confront the chaos that ensues.