The Deluge

The Deluge spans roughly three decades of American life, beginning in 2013 and stretching into a near future where climate breakdown reshapes the country. Markley follows a large ensemble: a climate scientist sounding alarms nobody heeds, a crude and charismatic activist building a nationwide movement, an eco-terrorist cell willing to use violence, a neurodivergent mathematician, a recovering addict, and an actor who becomes a religious demagogue. Their intertwined stories move from the Gulf Coast to Los Angeles to Washington as droughts, wildfires, and floods escalate and the political system struggles to respond. Across nearly 900 pages, the novel charts how democracy, capitalism, and faith all strain under ecological pressure, and whether a society built on short-term thinking can change before collapse becomes irreversible.