One Maryland One Book Discussion

2024's One Maryland One Book selection is What Storm, What Thunder by Myriam J.A. Chancy. Pick up your free copy from any Ruth Enlow Library branch today!

Come join us for a book discussion on Monday, November 4th at 6 p.m. at the Main Library in Oakland.

"At the end of a long, sweltering day, an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude shakes the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy masterfully charts the inner lives of the characters affected by the disaster―Richard, an expat and wealthy water-bottling executive with a secret daughter; the daughter, Anne, an architect who drafts affordable housing structures for a global NGO; a small-time drug trafficker, Leopold, who pines for a beautiful call girl; Sonia and her business partner, Dieudonné, who are followed by a man they believe is the vodou spirit of death; Didier, an emigrant musician who drives a taxi in Boston; Sara, a mother haunted by the ghosts of her children in an IDP camp; her husband, Olivier, an accountant forced to abandon the wife he loves; their son, Jonas, who haunts them both; and Ma Lou, the old woman selling produce in the market who remembers them all.

Brilliantly crafted, fiercely imagined, and deeply haunting, What Storm, What Thunder is a singular, stunning record, a reckoning of the heartbreaking trauma of disaster, and―at the same time―an unforgettable testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit."

Maryland Humanities created One Maryland One Book (OMOB) to bring diverse groups of Marylanders together through the shared experience of reading the same book. The Ruth Enlow Library of Garrett County invites you to participate in book discussions happening at all library locations from October through November.