Water. Man's most precious commodity is a luxury of the past. Radioactive waste from years of industrial dumping has caused the sea to form a protective skin strong enough to devastate the Earth it once sustained. And while the remorseless sun beats down on the dying land, civilization itself begins to crack. The world is threatened by dramatic climate change in this highly acclaimed and influential novel, one of the most important early works by the best-selling author of Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes.