SOUND, FURY.

From volcanic eruptions to seismic sea waves, discover books that revolve around nature's fury and the dynamic human spirit.
As a huge history and nonfiction listener, a lot of my favorite audiobooks seem to fall into the weather disaster category, but when I had the idea for this list—inspired by our new and brilliant Audible Original from Michael Lewis titled The Coming Storm—I knew I needed to tread carefully. For those living in coastal cities worldwide, or on the Great Plains in the middle of the United States, natural disasters are a harsh reminder that our world is an amalgamation of forces that, under the right circumstances, impose their will on our lives. The intent of this list is certainly not to capitalize on the tragedies suffered by others, but rather to spread the understanding of the world we live in and to shed light upon the ability for us, human kind, to rise above great tragedy. If history has taught us anything, it is that the perseverance of the human spirit is undefeated, and the 14 books below are all a testament to that fact. —Kyle, Audible Editor
Product List
  • Ghosts of the Tsunami Audiobook By Richard Lloyd Parry cover art

    • Ghosts of the Tsunami

    • Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone
    • By: Richard Lloyd Parry
    • Narrated by: Simon Vance
    • Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
    • Release date: 10-24-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 507 ratings
    • Disaster: Tsunami; Location: Japan
    • Author Richard Lloyd Parry was living in Tokyo with his family when, on March 11th of 2011, a massive earthquake rattled the whole of Japan, resulting in the most devastating loss of life in the country since the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Ghosts of the Tsunami is the story of how deep devastation penetrates a community, and how the dead may never cease to haunt those who were lucky enough to survive.
  • The Johnstown Flood Audiobook By David McCullough cover art

    • The Johnstown Flood

    • By: David McCullough
    • Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
    • Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
    • Release date: 06-17-05
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 4,113 ratings
    • Disaster: Flood; Location: Pennsylvania, USA
    • 20 million tons of water at 40 miles per hour. That is what the residents of Johnstown, PA were hit with on May 31, 1889 as a foot of rainfall burst the South Fork Dam, causing the deadliest flood in the history of the United States. Far more than just the story of a flood, this is a tale of unchecked hubris that lead to disaster, and the heroic efforts of relief by the American Red Cross, that became the first organized effort of its kind.
  • The Children's Blizzard Audiobook By David Laskin cover art

    • The Children's Blizzard

    • By: David Laskin
    • Narrated by: Paul Woodson
    • Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
    • Release date: 05-10-16
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 289 ratings
    • Disaster: Blizzard; Location: Midwest, USA
    • Unpredictability is a hallmark of how Mother Nature conducts her business. Residents of the Midwest (the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Minnesota to be specific) experienced said unpredictability in droves during a blizzard in January, 1888. Temperatures on the morning of January 12th were so warm that children headed to school in little to keep them warm enough to shelter them from the horrendous blizzard that would hit later that same day. The Children’s Blizzard tells the story of this harsh reminder to the settlers newly populating the middle of America that this new land of theirs was not always as idyllic as advertised.
  • Krakatoa Audiobook By Simon Winchester cover art

    • Krakatoa

    • The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883
    • By: Simon Winchester
    • Narrated by: Simon Winchester
    • Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
    • Release date: 01-14-04
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,141 ratings
    • Disaster: Volcano; Location: Indonesia
    • If you’ve sensed a pattern, you’re right. The 1800s saw huge population growth, but paired with still underdeveloped preparedness technology, it was a tough period for weather-related disasters. But of the many tragedies around the turn of this century, Krakatoa stands alone. Simon Winchester—one of the most celebrated historians of our time—chronicles a volcanic eruption, and subsequent tsunami, in which the death toll was so great that the name of the volcano became synonymous with the word disaster itself.
  • Into the Raging Sea Audiobook By Rachel Slade cover art

    • Into the Raging Sea

    • Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of the El Faro
    • By: Rachel Slade
    • Narrated by: Erin Bennett
    • Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
    • Release date: 05-01-18
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,088 ratings
    • Disaster: Hurricane; Location: Bermuda Triangle
    • When a container ship named El Faro disappeared in 2015, those in the shipping community were stunned as to how such a modern vessel could have simply vanished off the face of the earth. Rachel Slade (Boston Magazine) has the answer. Using the crew members’ own words, along with other painstakingly researched details, she recounts the final day El Faro was afloat and how Hurricane Joaquin swallowed it whole.
  • Death in the Air Audiobook By Kate Winkler Dawson cover art

    • Death in the Air

    • The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City
    • By: Kate Winkler Dawson
    • Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
    • Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
    • Release date: 10-20-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 398 ratings
    • Disaster: Fog; Location: London, England
    • As the Great Smog of London settled in during the early days of December, 1952, few people could have predicted that two mass murderers would emerge. This is the tale of those two killers—one who preyed on women in the neighborhood of Notting Hill, the other the choking, soot filled air itself, an indefatigable killer that would claim thousands.
  • A Crack in the Edge of the World Audiobook By Simon Winchester cover art

    • A Crack in the Edge of the World

    • America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
    • By: Simon Winchester
    • Narrated by: Simon Winchester
    • Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
    • Release date: 10-05-05
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 584 ratings
    • Disaster: Earthquake; Location: California, USA
    • The second selection from Simon Winchester on this list—I told you he was one of the greats—brings us back to the States where, in 1906, an earthquake rocked the city of San Francisco. In A Crack in the Edge of the World, the geological basis for the destructive forces behind the movement of our earth is explored, and I promise that after you listen to this, you will never look at our world the same again.
  • The White Cascade Audiobook By Gary Krist cover art

    • The White Cascade

    • The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche
    • By: Gary Krist
    • Narrated by: Robert Fass
    • Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
    • Release date: 01-09-18
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 130 ratings
    • Disaster: Avalanche; Location: Washington, USA
    • When two train cars of people were stranded on the edge of a narrow ravine in Wellington, WA, rescue crews raced to do everything they could as a snow storm bore down on them. Then, the worst happened. The snow drifts on the cliffs above them gave way to the deadliest avalanche in history.
  • Five Days at Memorial Audiobook By Sheri Fink cover art

    • Five Days at Memorial

    • Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
    • By: Sheri Fink
    • Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
    • Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
    • Release date: 09-10-13
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,536 ratings
    • Disaster: Hurricane; Location: Louisiana, USA
    • Five Days at Memorial recounts the chaotic environment inside Memorial Hospital in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina, and there is nobody more qualified to tell the story than physician and Pulitzer Prize-winner Sheri Fink. This is not an easy listen (the Kevorkian elements are what shook me most) but it provides an important look at how poorly we, as a nation, are prepared to provide care during the emergencies that nature can bring to our doorstep.
  • The Fire Line Audiobook By Fernanda Santos cover art

    • The Fire Line

    • The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots
    • By: Fernanda Santos
    • Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
    • Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
    • Release date: 05-03-16
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 158 ratings
    • Disaster: Wildfire; Location: Arizona, USA
    • Fernando Santos’ brilliantly written story of brotherhood and love in the face of danger sheds a necessary light on something that we have seen far too much of in recent years: the devastation caused by wildfires in the American West.
  • What Stands in a Storm Audiobook By Kim Cross cover art

    • What Stands in a Storm

    • Three Days in the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South's Tornado Alley
    • By: Kim Cross
    • Narrated by: Tracy Brunjes
    • Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
    • Release date: 04-21-15
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 127 ratings
    • Disaster: Tornado; Location: Tornado Alley, USA
    • The lives of individuals living in Tornado Alley—an area of the Great Plains that by most definitions encompasses 11 states—are almost certainly those that face the most frequent threat of disaster. What Stands in a Storm is a testament to that fact by recounting, in gripping narrative style, how in only a three-day period in 2011 more than 350 tornadoes barreled through the region bringing death and damage in droves.
  • Wave Audiobook By Sonali Deraniyagala cover art

    • Wave

    • A Memoir
    • By: Sonali Deraniyagala
    • Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
    • Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
    • Release date: 03-05-13
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 331 ratings
    • Disaster: Tsunami; Location: Sri Lanka
    • If you are looking for the book on this list that will make you appreciate all the small bits of happiness in your day-to-day, this is the one. As the sole surviving member of her family, Sonali Deraniyagala provides a detailed account of how in, December, 2004, a tsunami washed away life as she knew it on the coast of Sri Lanka, and what followed: her fight to create a new life for herself, all while keeping her memory of her family alive.