The Morningside

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What to expect

There's the world you can see. And then there's the one you can't. Welcome to The Morningside.

The Morningside was once the jewel of Island City. But now the luxury high-rise is crumbling and Island City is half-underwater.

The building's newest resident is an eleven-year-old girl, Silvia. Having arrived with only her mother, who is stubbornly secretive, Silvia knows little about the place they left behind. But her aunt, Ena, superintendent of the high-rise, delights in recounting the richly imaginative folktales of their demolished homeland to her little niece.

Suddenly Silvia's world fills with magic and myths. Myths that seem to be coming true, when she encounters the mysterious inhabitant of the building's penthouse, Bezi Duras, and her three massive dogs that may or may not be humans in disguise . . .

Consumed by curiosity, Silvia embarks on a mission to find out the truth about Bezi Duras, and her own haunted past.

'Obreht has prodigious talent for storytelling' GUARDIAN
'A tremendously talented writer' ANN PATCHETT

Critics Review

  • Like all of Obreht’s work, The Morningside is filled with tiny moments of acute observation and beautiful writing that will make you stop and gasp . . . you’ll be thinking about it all long after you’ve finished reading. A magical, special book by one of our best working novelists

    Lit Hub

  • Obreht is offering a cautionary vision of what our future might look like, but she’s also asking questions that are as old as storytelling. What do we want to tell ourselves about ourselves? What do we try to hide from ourselves? And what’s the cost of our lives?

    Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

  • As in her previous richly imagined and profoundly insightful novels . . . Obreht writes at the crossroads of myth and history, but here with a twist as she envisions a catastrophic tomorrow in which rampaging forces of nature and human atrocities intensify in impact and scope. . . . A bewitchingly atmospheric, psychologically lush, and deeply knowing tale of ancient sorrows and coalescing crises, courage and fortitude

    Booklist (starred review)

  • The dreamlike novel draws on elements of folklore and fairy tales for a narrative set eerily close to present day that explores environmental collapse and human resilience

    Time

  • This touching and inventive novel follows a young woman searching for meaning and belonging, both through her loving aunt’s stories and the enigmatic resident of the building’s penthouse suite

    Oprah Daily

  • Obreht is such an expert and generous storyteller, infusing The Morningside with the pleasures of folklore and fairy tale while simultaneously diving deep into the silences and irreconcilable contradictions in the stories we inherit about the past

    Karen Russell, author of Orange World and Other Stories

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