I, Sarah Steinway

FINALIST 2018 National Jewish Book Awards-Debut Novel

"The storytelling is by turns very funny and very serious, confident and uncompromisingly weird. Mary E. Carter has a voice with unquestionable power, and we look forward to reading more from her."

Sarah Steinway survives a catastrophic flood by moving into her treehouse located on the northern shoreline of the San Francisco Bay. Sarah, aged seventy-five, observes from her perch a rise in sea level that engulfs the entire landscape for as far as she can see. With snark and pluck, she survives in her treehouse for five years. She records the flood, narrates her survival, and leavens her story with gusts of biting humor. Somewhat sheepishly as a secular Jew, Sarah turns for comfort to Torah. Instead of finding solace, she engages in tart argumentation with God, raising her fist, shouting the eternal Jewish question: “Why me?”

“Carter’s captivating, vividly imagined tale unfolds with terrifying beauty as protagonist Sarah Steinway grapples with survival in a future climate change disaster. Carter’s novel is an utterly original imagining of a post-apocalyptic world, lightly using the tropes of dystopian and disaster fiction while depending on ingenuity and emotional depth to carry the story. Savvy cultural references bring an immediacy and freshness to the text.”