The Book of Rain
“What difference can it make to save the life of one animal?”
Executive Editor Anne Collins at Random House Canada calls this book a “hugely ambitious, multi-layered, and profound novel.”
The Book of Rain begins in the northern mining town of River Meadows, where a valuable ore’s strange properties create anomalous effects known as “decoherences” that alter reality and eventually force the evacuation of the town. From this beginning the novel follows three intertwining stories:
Alex Hewitt returns to River Meadows years later to search for his sister Amery, who has disappeared while rescuing animals trapped in the restricted zone.
Claire, a young woman from River Meadows who now traffics endangered wildlife, comes to an island under threat of environmental catastrophe for what she hopes will be her greatest prize yet, only to find herself facing a life-altering choice.
In a future as distant as myth, a flock of birds sets out on a dangerous journey to prevent the extinction of their ancient enemy, humanity.
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“It’s difficult to describe just how audaciously imaginative The Book of Rain is. Thomas Wharton has crafted a world parallel to this one yet not, an epic of consuming scope…. A stunning excavation of how fragile, fleeting, and many-faced it is to be human. I wish more books surprised me as much as this one did.” — Omar El Akkad
“Wharton’s unflinching eye and soaring imagination turns a perilous journey wondrous.” — Eden Robinson
“The Book of Rain isn’t so much a book as it is and ecosystem … the reader comes away from it astonished and fulfilled.” — Amanda Leduc
'“ … a kind of miracle, one I’m glad I had an opportunity to experience.” — Craig Davidson
The Book of Rain reviewed by Allan Hepburn in The Literary Review of Canada.