Jenna Blum's new novel, The Stormchasers, will be published on May 27th. This is Jenna's first novel since Those Who Save Us ripped up the bestseller charts. The Stormchasers has already garnered an excellent review in Publishers Weekly.
Here's what they have to say: "At home in Minnesota, Karena Jorge gets an unexpected call informing her that her twin brother, Charles Hallingdahl, whom she hasn't seen in the 20 years since something went very wrong during a storm chase, has been admitted to a Kansas mental hospital. Charles suffers from rapid cycling bipolar disorder, and all Karena knows is that he refuses medication, he can be a danger to himself and others, and he is still obsessed with storm chasing. When she rushes to the clinic and finds he has already left, Karena joins a professional storm-chasing tour company, hoping to find her brother in the caravan of watchers who follow major storms. In the course of the tour, Karena confronts the past and the way it has shaped her life. The unpredictable and dangerous storms provide a framework for an exploration of the bond between siblings (and its limitations), and Blum renders the stormy backdrop as richly as she does her nuanced characters."
Nice! Jenna is a Boston-area writer who has taught on and off at the ever-popular (and ever growing!) Grub Street (Boston's first non-profit creative writing center) since its inception in 1997. I'm lucky to have experienced first-hand what a gracious, informed, and ever-helpful instructor she is and I can't wait to get my hands on her new book. She's been researching this subject for at least three years, going off every spring on storm chasing expeditions across the mid-west and wherever she hears tell of crazy, insane, just downright stupid weather. The kind of weather I'd rather read about from the comfort of a new hardcover.
Stay tuned to this channel for highlights from her book launch:
