The Past Is Red (2021)

Tetley loves the floating rubbish settlement that other accounts might treat only as a symbol of catastrophe. Valente's short, sharp book makes room for work, affection, prejudice and the stories a community tells about its prospects. Its exaggerations belong to satire, with a vast ocean and accumulated consumer waste forming the material conditions of life. Read for the uncomfortable difference between recognising damage and deciding that the people living with it have nothing worth preserving.