The Unmapping

DEBUT Disasters abound in New York City as a hurricane and an unprecedented event take place simultaneously. The event is called the unmapping, where all the buildings in the city simultaneously switch places with each other, seemingly at random, at 4:00 a.m. each day. Using this as a metaphor for climate change, the novel asks how cities, communities, and individuals deal with a reckoning of massive proportions. The many points of view come together to weave a full story across the city during a time of crisis, with a focus on Esme and Arjun, two emergency management workers who are struggling to solve a problem that seems unending and immeasurable. Even as the city shifts and changes, its residents still have to work and live—and perhaps join a cult, as some side characters do, in search of answers as to why this is happening. Despite the unnerving circumstances, Robbins’s literary sci-fi borders on cozy.