Real People/Real Stories Book Club: “The Vortex” (WL)

Real People/Real Stories meets the third Thursday of each month to explore the best in nonfiction history, biography, science, nature, and the arts.

This month’s title is The Vortex: A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation by Scott Carney and Jason Miklian

In November 1970, a massive storm blew into Pakistan, killing over 500,000 people and instigating a revolution that led to the founding of Bangladesh. The resulting turmoil brought the Cold War superpowers to the brink of nuclear war.

“Scott Carney and Jason Miklian craft top-notch narrative nonfiction from this complex story of natural disaster crossed with politics. . . . This is full of jaw-dropping stuff. . . . A readable, compelling narrative [that] arrives at a critical moment.” — WhatsNonfiction.com

A fast-paced work of narrative nonfiction. . . . Carney and Miklian write vividly in the fashion of a cinematic disaster flick. . . . Their mastery of documentary sources and previous scholarship is evident.” — Washington Post

“An utterly gripping story of international political intrigue, natural disaster, and the consequences for millions as refracted through the experiences of the ordinary, powerless people. The births of nations are rarely without drama and in the case of Bangladesh, though now an economic miracle, it began with all the tragedy that could befall one of the world’s poorest countries. The Vortex provides timely instruction for the age of climate change in how politics and environmental pressures combine explosively.” — Zia Haider Rahman, James Tait Black Memorial Prize–winning author of In the Light of What We Know

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