The Windup Girl

Summary

Set in a future Thailand where fossil fuels have run out and powerful agricultural corporations control food through genetically engineered crops and engineered plagues, the novel follows several characters including Emiko, a manufactured human treated as property. Bacigalupi builds a vivid biopunk world strained by climate collapse, scarcity, and corporate power. The book interrogates exploitation, ecology, and what counts as human in a degraded world.