''The Girl in the Road'' is a 2014

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

novel by

Monica Byrne Monica Byrne (born July 13, 1981) is an American playwright and science fiction author. She is best known for her drama ''What Every Girl Should Know'' and her debut novel '' The Girl in the Road'', which won the 2015 James Tiptree, Jr. Award and ...

. It tracks two stories in parallel: one of a primary protagonist, Meena, as she crosses a floating energy-harvesting bridge that spans the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

some time in the 2060s, and another of the youth and young adulthood of Mariama, who travels several decades earlier from Western Africa to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. ''The Girl in the Road'' is Byrne's

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

. The

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

described it as "a new sensation, a real achievement", while

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

criticized it, saying "the pulpiest of genre mysteries are shoved into the narrative, only to be neglected or resolved anti-climactically" and that "the result is a ragged patchwork of concepts, interconnections and intriguing possibilities, many of which wind up as red herrings." It shared the 2014 James Tiptree, Jr. Award with Jo Walton's '' My Real Children''. It was also a finalist for the UK's

Kitschies The Kitschies are British literary prizes presented annually for "the year's most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic" published in the United Kingdom. Awards and criteria The Ki ...

Golden Tentacle award for debut speculative fiction novel. In August 2015, a German translation was published under the title ''Die Brücke'' (''The Bridge'').

References

2014 American novels James Tiptree Jr. Award-winning works 2014 science fiction novels LGBT speculative fiction novels 2014 debut novels Crown Publishing Group books {{2010s-LGBT-novel-stub