Hurricane Fiction

I am crafting this post a day ahead of Hurricane Earl’s anticipated arrival in Nova Scotia. Having endured Hurricane Juan in 2003, I think many of us are taking the warnings a little more seriously this time around.

I did my preparations yesterday:
Food and water – check
Flashlights and batteries- check
Candles and matches – check
Propane and hotdogs – check
Stack of books – check.

All of this buzz about Earl got me curious about hurricanes and fiction. Here are a few recent hurricane related novels from our collection that piqued my interest:

Toros and Torsos, by Craig MacDonald

“As in its Edgar-nominated predecessor Head Games, history and myth merge, drawing on recent scholarship pointing to the existence of a dark underground of artists, photographers and art collectors that flourished in Europe and United States through most of the Twentieth Century.

In a blood-limned haze of love, deception, murderous metaphor and devastating betrayal, nothing is what it seems and obsession and creativity collide in a wicked and unexpected climax that will shake the art world to its foundations.” – publisher

Rebel Island, by Rick Riordan

“What really happened that long-ago summer, what dark secrets were kept, and who has come back to avenge them. These are the questions Tres, his brother Garrett, and the very pregnant Maia must answer-and time is running out. For a monster hurricane is about to hit Rebel Island, cutting them off from the mainland and leaving them trapped on a flooding island with the hotel’s remaining guests brutally dying one by one.

Tres knows better than anyone that the bloodlines of South Texas are as twisted as barbed wire. This time they’re guarding a revelation that can turn his dreams of happily ever after into the ultimate nightmare.” – book jacket

Category Seven, by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson

“Kate Sherman is a brilliant young meteorologist who can’t understand how she recently missed predicting three major storms-storms that cut into the profits of her employer, Coriolis Industries. Afraid of being fired, Kate throws herself into an analysis of the strange storms-and headlong into the path of a secret plot that may cost her her life!

Hurricane Simone is a Category 7-the biggest, strongest storm in recorded history-and she’s clawing her way up the East Coast. When she hits New York City, skyscrapers will fall. Subways and tunnels will flood. Lower Manhattan and much of Queens and Brooklyn will disappear under more than thirty feet of water. Thousands, if not millions, will die.

Created by secret, cutting-edge weather science, Simone is not just an unnatural disaster-she’s a weapon. Kate and CIA weatherman Jake Baxter must figure out how to stop the storm before she flattens New York City . . . and identify Simone’s master before he has them both killed.” – book jacket

Jesus Out to Sea: stories, by James Lee Burke

“The title story was Burke’s first published piece of fiction that responded to Hurricane Katrina. As two old junkie musicians float through the drowned city, they are overwhelmed by memories of their lives in “The Big Sleazy.” A plaintive valentine to the New Orleans of years past, and a heartrending portrait of those left behind after the storm.

Eschewing the genre trappings of the Robicheaux and Billy Bob Holland series, these are indelible stories of survival, loss, and memory. James Lee Burke’s Jesus Out to Sea reveals new dimensions of an American master.“

Galveston: a novel, by Paul Quarrington

“From one of Canada’s beloved fiction writers comes a tale of love and loss, guilt and forgiveness — and finding redemption in the eye of a hurricane.

Few people seek out the tiny Caribbean island of Dampier Cay. Visitors usually wash up there by accident, rather than by design. But this weekend, three people will fly to the island deliberately. They are not coming for a tan or fun in the sun. They are coming because Dampier Cay is where it is, and they have reason to believe that they might encounter something there that most people take great measures to avoid — a hurricane.

Cinematic and harrowing, spiced with Quarrington’s trademark humour, Galveston shows just how far people will go to feel alive.“ – publisher