The English Channel has turned murderous. Massive waterspouts, monstrous columns of spinning water and wind, are sinking ships with terrifying regularity, and the world watches in horror as another vessel vanishes beneath the waves. Into this chaos steps Simon Dubosc, a young Frenchman whose courage is about to be tested not only by the apocalyptic weather but by an impossible love: Isabel, daughter of an English peer, seems as unreachable as the calm sea. As the catastrophes escalate toward what the novel calls "the tremendous event", a disaster so profound it will reshape the relationship between France and England more than any war, Simon must navigate not just lethal waterspouts but the equally treacherous currents of class, nationality, and desire. Maurice Leblanc, better known as the creator of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, delivers a propulsive adventure that uses natural catastrophe as a lens for examining what survives when everything else is swept away.
