I have listened to the audiobook for this book twice now.  I was looking up the author's name on my audiobook list of purchases and accidently told it to download, so I figured I might as well listen to it again.  Especially since I keep recommending it.

It was just as good the second time and I will continue to recommend it.  It is a dark book.  A future world where water is very scarce and natural disasters are ravishing what few habitable areas there are.  The story follows a few characters who start out with separate lives, but all intertwine in Phoneix, AZ... a city that's holding on even though the odds seemed to be stacked against it. What happens in a very tough world when water rights that could trump any current assumption of rights is discovered?  

 Bacigalupi writes a well thought out and believable world for his story.  His characters are also down to earth and very believable.  They are complicated, it's not just about rooting for a cookie cutter protagonist, which is always my favorite sort of character building in a book.