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The Light Pirate: GMA Book Club Selection

by Lily Brooks-Dalton

A life shaped by a changing Florida

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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize

    Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize

  • Bestseller

    USA Today Bestseller

    USA Today bestseller

  • Book club selection

    Good Morning America Book Club Pick

    Good Morning America Book Club pick

AlbakiReads Editorial

A life shaped by a changing Florida

A catastrophic hurricane marks the beginning of Wanda’s life, while rising seas and worsening weather steadily transform the Florida she grows up in. Across four sections—power, water, light, and time—the novel traces her movement from childhood toward adulthood as the landscape changes and the people who remain form new bonds. Its climate-disrupted setting connects personal survival and family loss with questions of community, adaptation, and life in a place remade by nature. The elemental structure gives the story a framework that reflects the gradual unraveling of familiar surroundings.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in literary fiction set amid climate change and environmental upheaval.
  • Readers who enjoy stories about growing up, family, and community under pressure.
  • Book groups seeking fiction with themes of resilience, adaptation, and a changing natural world.

Themes

Climate change and environmental upheavalSurvival and adaptationFamily and lossCommunity and belongingNature and human life

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

FINALIST FOR THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE

Set in the near future, this hopeful story of survival and resilience follows Wanda--a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane--as she navigates a rapidly changing world: A "symphony of beauty and heartbreak" (Associated Press).


USA TODAY BESTSELLER!

A Good Morning America Book Club pick - #1 Indie Next pick - LibraryReads pick - Book of the Month Club selection - Marie Claire #ReadWithMC book club selection - 2022 NPR "Book We Love" - New York Times Editors' Choice

Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state's infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before.

As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature.

Told in four parts--power, water, light, and time--The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness.

Includes a Reading Group Guide.
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