Eve Smith’s “ONE: One Law, One Child, 7 Million Crimes” immerses us in a dystopian future where a green-tech paradise conceals a family-planning hell. It builds on the very same premise that led to the One-Child Policy in China: in order to avoid famine and environmental catastrophe, births must be controlled no matter what. Only this time it happens in a future UK where climate tech and the eyes of an Orwellian government are omnipresent.

Before I read The Strength of Water, all I knew about the gold rush in California was how Chinese men suffered and struggled to make a living; After reading the story, I had a much deeper understanding of how Chinese women survived and thrived in a totally foreign environment.