The Displacements: A Novel

Floridians like Daphne aren’t prone to panic at the appearance of a tropical storm. But when tropical storm Luna aims right for southern Florida–where Daphne, her husband Brantley, and their children live in a large, expensive home–they follow the evacuation orders. Very quickly, it’s clear that Luna isn’t like other storms. Brantley is overseeing the evacuation of patients at the hospital, so Daphne sets out with the children and their dog–only to find that there’s no gas available nor hotels, and Brantley proves to be unreachable. Daphne and thousands of others are sent to a shelter in Oklahoma, where their previous, affluent life is no buffer against calamity.

Other characters’ stories play out alongside Daphne’s, and Holsinger renders compelling plots for Rain, a FEMA leader; Tate, a drug dealer; Gavin, Daphne’s teenage stepson; and more. Holsinger keeps the story moving with a rushing sequence of dread and disaster, but rather than being overly dramatic, the events that befall these characters are all too real, all too possible. Without drastic climate intervention, this is the world we’re heading toward, a world of displacement. This novel is a bleak reckoning that’s impossible to put down.