Fire Weather

The Making of a Beast

By: John Vaillant

Narrated by: Alan Carlson

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • FINALIST FOR THE HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN NONFICTION • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’ TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A stunning account of the colossal wildfire at Fort McMurray, and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind from the award-winning, best-selling author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce.

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian • TIME • The Globe and Mail • The New Yorker • Financial Times • CBC • Smithsonian • Air Mail Weekly • Slate • NPR • Toronto Star • The Washington Post • The Times • Orion Magazine

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada's petroleum industry and America's biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighborhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—John Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world.

For hundreds of millennia, fire has been a partner in our evolution, shaping culture, civilization, and, very likely, our brains. Fire has enabled us to cook our food, defend and heat our homes, and power the machines that drive our titanic economy. Yet this volatile energy source has always threatened to elude our control, and in our new age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in previously unimaginable ways.

With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Vaillant takes us on a riveting journey through the intertwined histories of North America's oil industry and the birth of climate science, to the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern forest fires, and into lives forever changed by these disasters. John Vaillant's urgent work is a book for—and from—our new century of fire, which has only just begun.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 John Vaillant (P)2023 Knopf Canada

Critic reviews

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

WINNER OF THE BALLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION

FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION

FINALIST FOR THE 2023 BANFF MOUNTAIN BOOK COMPETITION

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES' 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2023

ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023

ONE OF TIME'S BEST BOOKS OF 2023

ONE OF THE CBC'S BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF 2023

“All-too-timely. . . . The real protagonist here is the fire itself: an unruly and terrifying force with insatiable appetites. This book is both a real-life thriller and a moment-by-moment account of what happened—and why, as the climate changes and humans don’t, it will continue to happen again and again.”—The New York Times, ”10 Best Books of 2023”

“A gripping depiction of the blaze’s devastating trajectory. . . . The book’s true protagonist is fire, which Vaillant treats like a living, breathing creature that is destined to grow even more dangerous as the world becomes even more combustible. At a time when wildfires are dominating news cycles, Fire Weather is not just a timely and stunning account of recent history—it’s also a frightening preview of what could become our new normal.—Shannon Carlin, TIME Magazine's ”100 Must-Read Books of 2023”

“This timely and riveting account of the 2016 McMurray wildfire explores not just that Canadian inferno but what it bodes for the future. Vaillant has a chillingly serious message: This is the inevitable result of climate change, and it will happen again and again.”—The New York Times, ”100 Notable Books of 2023”

Climate change for the unconvinced

This is a book about climate change that speaks to the unconvinced, to the people working in the Alberta oil sands who have experienced the devastating Fort McMurray fire or have been affected by it.

However, the beginning could have been more coherent. It feels like starting to read the Wikipedia article on the Fort McMurray fire but getting caught up following every link along the way: "The first gasoline engine was described on page 1 of the Scientific American, directly above a recipe for Canadian Rhubarb Wine."