Timeline

• Jul 14, 2026: started reading.
• Jul 24, 2026: finished reading.

Review

Fitting book to read during Monsoon in Mumbai. Stewart’s unconventional dramatization of pressure, the interplay of cold and warm fronts, and all the ensuing consequences for man and animal kept me company as my own temples throbbed under the influence of dark, billowing clouds and heavy downpour.

If anyone ever asks you what’s meant by the term “omniscient narrator,” put this book in their hands. This narrator recounts with god-like objectivity: the exhaustive details of the storm’s fallout, the thoughts running through a wild boar’s head before it drowns in a storm surge, and the 400 years of history of a segment of fallen tree trunk that’s about to be dislodged by a gopher’s nest building, among other things. He peppers in enough human drama to keep the story engaging, and he plants the seeds of each small vignette early and lets them unfold in their own proper time over the 12 days of the storm’s lifespan. It all works surprisingly well.