When a catastrophic tornado strikes his North Texas hometown, a young man caught in the deadening routines of blue collar work is shocked into rediscovering the importance of his life. This mesmerising novel explores the phenomenon of stormchasing as a search for meaning, for the experience of being intensely alive. It is also, in William Hauptman's words, "the story of a strong family and the love that holds them together in a time of profound hardship and change." A native Texan who now resides in Brooklyn, New York, William Hauptman is also the author of the Tony Award-winning musical Big River. His short-story collection Good Rockin' Tonight won the Jesse Jones Award for Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters.