Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

"Nailer shrugged and got his own knife. He set it against the joint where it would part easily. He pressed his blade into the girls's flesh. Blood welled up as he cut.
The girl's black eyes blinked"

Nailer is a ship breaker who works light crew for a scavenge team on what was the Gulf Coast. The region was devasted by a killer storm that obliterated the city of New Orleans and altered the region. His job involves crawling through the ductwork of grounded oil tankers looking for reusable materials. After a day of scavenging copper wire, his boss sends him back for more since there is a big storm coming up. The copper wire can be stripped on the beach during the storm and they can't leave behind any easy pickings for the next crew. Nailer reenters the tanker and in his haste to get back out falls through the duct into a room flooded with old oil. Struggling to hold on and find a way out, Nailer is left behind by a fellow crew member, Sloth, who may be intent on keeping Nailer's find a secret. Nailer is able to open an air-tight door and escape death.

Nailer is now seen as having the Fates on his side because of his harrowing adventure. Hailed as a sort of hero, he is showered with gifts while Sloth is left to fend for herself as an outcast. His crewmate Pima takes Nailer to her mother to stitch up his injuries. Upon his arrival back home, Nailer is dishearted to see that his no good father is there. In trying to gage his father's mood, Nailer gives him the last of his liquor. He is pleased by his son's good fortune and nicknames him Lucky Boy. That night, Nailer sees glimpses of the man his father was before his mother's death.

The next morning, Nailer wakes up to what he describes as a city killer storm. He sees everyone in Bright Sands Beach fleeing to higher ground to escape the storm surge. Unable to awaken his father, Nailer runs to Pima's shack for help. Nailer and Pima take shelter in a cave while her mother goes off to see about his father. The storm passes after two days and Pima and Nailer emerge to find their parents but several friends and coworkers are dead or missing. Everyone is in survival mode with the scavenge buyers inland. Until things are organized, people are on their own. Nailer's father takes a position as a strong hand and leaves without a second thought.

Nailer and Pima go to scavenge food and head off for a distant island that hasn't been picked over. There they discover a clipper ship that was wrecked during the storm. Once aboard, they see more than enough scavenge to make them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. As they go through the ship, they notice that the crew has been killed. In one bedroom, they discover a beautiful young woman with enough gold on her hands to make their lives easier. Her fingers are too swollen for the rings to be removed. Pima decides to cut off her fingers. When Nailer presses the knife to her hand, the girl stirs. She is still alive! Nailer now has some conflicted decisions to make: kill the girl and become extremely wealthy or save her life and return her to her family.

Join Nailer on the adventure of his lifetime where he attempts to make a better life for himself in a world where natural resources are scarce and fierce weather patterns mold the landscape.