Child of Light

This near-future story of hope, survival, and tenacity tells of Wanda—a luminous child born from a devastating hurricane—who navigates a rapidly changing world.
Florida is disappearing. As the state’s infrastructure is slowly worn down by destructive weather and rising sea levels, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, a power line repairman, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the two boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby ventures out into the strong winds to find them. Left alone, Frida prematurely gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, named after the catastrophic storm she was born in, into a society closer to collapse than ever before.
The book, in its four parts—power, water, light, time—mirrors the rhythm of the elements and the demise of the world as we know it, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not welcome, and the beauty and violence of the untamed wilderness.