The Book of Rain

"SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE ""Thomas Wharton's The Book of Rain is a whole living world in itself. It is a mystery in three linked narratives, it is climate fiction, and it is a kind of mythology, creating a strange, gorgeous, utterly haunting work. Wharton's writing is clear and elegant, yet the story continually startles readers with the turns it takes as its characters seek what has been lost. He accomplishes this with precision and grace. The Book of Rain shimmers with imagination, depth and optimism."" — 2023 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize jury citation ""Thomas Wharton's novel has a prismatic effect: a reader can see rainbow refractions of Strugatsky, Joan Lindsay, Jeff Vandermeer, even Lovecraft—but The Book of Rain is unique enough to exist beyond comparison. A book of rich characterizations and bold ideas, the kind of highwire act many writers shy away from. The fact that Wharton pulls it off is a kind of miracle, one I'm glad I had an opportunity to experience."" —Craig Davidson, author of The Saturday Night Ghost Club and Rust and Bone ""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. This is more than climate fiction for climate fiction’s sake: with beautiful literary control, Wharton ventures into the wilds, and in doing so presents 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, author of the Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning What Strange Paradise ""The Book of Rain ripples through reality, giving us a new vocabulary for the strange and dangerous world we find ourselves in.  A subtle and haunting journey through the intertwined lives of three characters at the end of the world, Wharton's unflinching eye and soaring imagination turn a perilous journey wondrous."" —Eden Robinson, author of The Trickster Trilogy ""The Book of Rain isn't so much a book as it is an ecosystem—intricate and delicate, with storylines that cross and converge and seem as rooted in place—and every bit as alive—as the animals and plants that course through these pages. And just like an ecosystem, the reader comes away from it astonished and fulfilled. Look on these pages and revel in wonder."" —Amanda Leduc, author of The Centaur’s Wife ""Complex, sprawling. . . . The novel plays with form and structure; it shifts into histories and asides that point toward deeper truths. . . . A story grounded in a very real and tangible idea: Human beings are not listening to the world—they are perhaps not even suited to it—and, as they try to bend it to their will, they will inevitably bring it all to ruin. . . . The best parts of The Book of Rain revolve around the gravity of our most elemental stories, those narratives set down 'like tracks in snow' to show where we've gone, where we should never have been, and how light or heavy the marks are that we’ve trod into the world on the way to this tenuous and perilous moment."" —Quill and Quire ""Wharton's great strength as a writer lies in collecting all of these disparate pieces without making his story incoherent or even too-coherent. . . . He doesn’t fall into the trap so many writers with similar themes do, and always keeps the emotional lives of his characters . . . as the focus."" —Winnipeg Free Press ""Marvellous. . . . The Book of Rain is an essential text for thinking about extinction and environmental catastrophe."" —Literary Review of Canada"