Depart Depart!

When an unprecedented hurricane devastates the city of Houston Noah Mishner finds shelter in the Dallas Mavericks' basketball arena. Though he finds community among other queer refugees Noah fears his trans and Jewish identities put him at risk with certain capital-T Texans. His fears take form when he starts seeing visions of his great-grandfather Abe who fled Nazi Germany as a boy. As the climate crisis intensifies and conditions in the shelter deteriorate Abe's ghost grows more powerful. Ultimately Noah must decide whether he can trust his ancestor - and whether he's willing to sacrifice his identity and community in order to survive. Depart Depart! grapples with intersections of social justice and climate change asking readers to consider how they'll react when the world changes in an instant. Who will we turn to? What will we take with us and what will we have to leave behind? In our rapidly changing world these are questions we grapple with. Focusing on finding and supporting community after disaster Depart Depart! is a story for these uncertain times.Texas is shaken by an apocalyptic flood in Kern's tense entrancing debut novella. Noah a trans man takes refuge in a Dallas basketball arena-turned-relief shelter rubbing shoulders with the full spectrum of Texas society from members of the Austin queer community to conservative good ol' boys. Noah finds his place with Elena a trans woman and nonbinary Malone as the shelter residents band together in small groups to help one another. Noah is also visited by a ghostly boy Abe who he believes to be the spirit of his great grandfather who delivers warnings and doles out advice. Noah struggles in a world without privacy grapples with his complex relationship with his Jewish identity and as tensions rise between factions and conditions in the arena deteriorate his loyalty to his newfound friends is tested. Noah faces the same choice his great-grandfather once wrestled with: to save himself or die helping his friends. With high stakes and a solid emotional core and a perfect balance of speculation and an all-too-real vision of climate apocalypse Kern shows the necessity of compassion empathy and community in the face of crisis. ?Publishers Weekly starred review“Kern’s debut novella takes climate change and makes it personal. Readers will root hard for Noah and his found family to survive the crisis they’re facing but Noah’s internal journey proves to be just as compelling. This book is a ghost story but it’s a love story too: to the queer community to those we’ve lost and all we stand to lose if we don’t take drastic action. Kern’s prose is tremendously effective and will both break your heart and offer hope.” Chicago Review of BooksDepart Depart! grabbed me from its first tense page. Noah's story of losing and finding community amid disaster guided by the unreliable ghost of a traumatized ancestor is too compelling to put down. Kern's writing is fierce and fearless equally dextrous with portraying apocalyptic climate change or the joy of a queer dance floor when a DJ starts spinning Beyoncé. I'd say this novella isn't for the faint of heart but it's for all of us trapped in unraveling situations facing the seemingly intractable binary of being safe and alone or vulnerable but together. Nino Cipri World Fantasy Award Finalist and author of Homesick and Finna