Something New Under the Sun

The bulk of this novel from Bard Fiction winner Kleeman (You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine) takes place on a movie set in the greater Los Angeles area during a near-future period of drought and wildfire. East Coast novelist Patrick’s book is being made into a film, and as part of the deal he has been offered a job on the set; he becomes a gofer for former child star Cassidy. With the L.A. area having run out of water, an artificial substitute called WAT-R has taken its place—a huge issue because it turns out that WAT-R causes an acute form of early onset dementia. Cassidy drinks only real water, but unfortunately Patrick has consumed a lot of WAT-R and is progressively losing his mind. They band together and learn that the movie producers are running a scam to make money by warehousing dementia victims. At the same time, Patrick desperately misses his wife and daughter, who live on a commune in upstate New York, and Cassidy tries to save Patrick and reunite him with his family. The outcome remains far from certain.