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Published May 2015
320 pages
Genre: Science, Health and the Environment
Publication Information
Oklahomans have long been known for their fatalism and grit, but even old-timers are troubled by the twisters that are devastating the state with increasing frequency. On May 20, 2013, the worst tornado on record landed a direct hit on the small town of Moore, destroying two schools while the children cowered inside.
Oklahoma native Holly Bailey grew up dreaming of becoming a storm chaser. Instead, she became Newsweek's youngest ever White House correspondent, traveling to war zones with Presidents Bush and Obama. When Moore was hit, Bailey went back both as a journalist and a hometown girl, speaking to the teachers who put their lives at risk to save their students, the weathermen more revered than rock stars and more tormented than they let on, and many shell-shocked residents. In The Mercy of the Sky Bailey does for the Oklahoma flatlands what Sebastian Junger did for Gloucester, Massachusetts, in The Perfect Storm, telling a dramatic, page-turning story about a town that must survive the elements - or die.
"Starred Review. Bailey ramps up the tension with a skilled hand, following the tornado's path through town until residents emerge from the wreckage to a landscape they 'no longer recognized.' Her artistry will leave more than a few readers gasping for breath." - Publishers Weekly
"Nail-biting chronology drives the plot... Bailey's prose vividly evokes the tornado's power and menace. Storm chasers will find thrills in this tale of nature's wrath." - Kirkus
"Holly Bailey's The Mercy of the Sky is a gripping, heartbreaking, and heartwarming account of the monster tornado that ravaged Moore, Oklahoma, in 2013. It will leave you emotionally drained but glad you journeyed into the heart of this extraordinary storm with Bailey as your guide." - Daniel James Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat
"Holly Bailey brings together riveting science, human drama, courage, tragedy, and redemption to create a quintessential American story. Powerful and moving." - Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of The Monster of Florence
"Holly Bailey's riveting writing brings you to the center of the storm - and it's terrifying. She makes you feel a community's loss - and it's devastating. And she brings you inside people's lives as they heal - and it is inspiring." - David Greene, host of NPR's Morning Edition, author of Midnight in Siberia
"Holly Bailey makes you feel the wrath of a killer tornado. She makes you taste it, smell it, and hear it." - Tom Shroder, author of Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster
This information about The Mercy of the Sky was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Holly Bailey is a correspondent for Yahoo News and was Newsweek's White House correspondent. An Oklahoma City native, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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