« NWe just learned that the fire crossed Highway 101 at the Hollywood Bowl, where it killed at least thirteen firefighters and rescuers. It appears that the wind pushed the flames to the other side of the Cahuenga pass. The gusts are now exceeding 130 km/h and the fire is heading towards the city…” This is not an extract from the latest Los Angeles fire bulletin, but a sentence from the Floodmonumental novel by Stephen Markley, published a few months ago by Albin Michel.
A fresco spanning around thirty years, between 2013 and 2040, mainly in the United States, this sprawling, breathtaking novel features a handful of characters caught in the infernal spiral of a world where disasters follow one another at will. of chain reactions. The author (who previously published the very fine Ohiowith the same publisher) devoted ten years to the writing of Floodin which he analyzes the contemporary socio-political sphere to paint the portrait of a world undermined by lobbyism, greed, activism on all sides, climate change and the inaction that is taking its course.
The very dense plot rests on the shoulders of embodied characters, who each illustrate one of the facets of the fight against the crisis, from scientists to ecoterrorists, including politicians who still imagine a future compatible with capitalism. From year to year, the apocalypse unfolds slowly and inescapably. […] Read more
