In Portland, Oregon, Annie decides to go to Ikea to buy a crib for her soon-to-be-born child—she’s waited as long as she can. But soon after she arrives in the store, there is an earthquake: the big one, long predicted on the West Coast’s Cascadia Subduction Zone fault line. Emma Pattee’s debut novel, Tilt is the intense, taut story of Annie’s day, as she navigates each step through and after the natural disaster.
When the shaking stops and the dust settles, the only choice available is to walk, so Annie pulls herself from the collapsed aisles and sets off down the roads and bridges of the city, hoping to meet her husband, Dom, at the cafe where he works. Pattee creates a keen sense of environment, built and natural, as Annie takes in the scale of the destruction and the vast uncertainty of what could come next.
Annie’s narrative voice is striking, moving between her present moment and reflections on the past, all addressed to her unborn baby, whom she calls Bean. She tells Bean about her life in fragments and what-ifs—because what does a disaster do if not clarify what really matters? Readers will move at a rapid pace through the short chapters, urgently needing to know what will happen to Annie and Bean as they continue on their journey.
Pattee brings her expertise as a climate journalist to this remarkable debut, examining how we question our lives when the earth takes control. Ultimately, Tilt is fascinating, haunting and surprising at every turn.
