Village of Islands

A Short Story

By: Jim Shepard

Narrated by: Stephen Graybill

From the award-winning author of The Book of Aron and Phase Six comes a powerful short story exploring one of the most devastating storms in American history.

The 1935 Labor Day hurricane annihilated between four hundred and six hundred lives in the middle of the Florida Keys, and like all disasters, both exposed long-standing social and economic inequities and reminded us of the bonds that enable us to provide what rescue we can for those we cherish. In this fictional account of the storm, rooted in the record but brought to life with Shepard’s unparalleled command of interpersonal impact, Village of Islands follows a handful of residents of a small beachside town in the moments leading up to, during and after this life-altering event.

©2021 Jim Shepard (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.

Village of islands

Wow!!! what a masterful and emotional experience this audio book is! I would love to hear more from this audio story.

A short poignant story about a devastating storm

Overall a very interesting and detailed narrative of what happened during the Labor Day hurricane in 1935. It was a category five with winds over 200 miles an hour. It devastated the keys. By creating characters we could identify with it draws us into the story with more emotion

Heartbreaking. Horrific. Important.

Everyone should know about this hurricane during the Depression that swept away HUNDREDS of WW II veterans and a whole town in Florida’s Keys. It may have been the most fierce one to hit the mainland.

chilling tale- worth a listen

Chilling tale of survival based on one of the strongest storms in Florida history. The dry, matter of fact delivery of the story left room for my imagination and memory of hurricanes- how the storm feels and how it makes me feel- to bring the harrowing details to life. Hurricanes- even relatively weak ones- remind me of the raw power and indifference of Nature.

Powerful lessons to be learned- never forget that tools all have limitations. Trust real evidence and be mindful of technology gaps. Overconfidence in limited tools led to tragic and avoidable loss of life.

I know a few of the locations in the story and will likely do a little digging to see what facts of the event exist. This was a good short listen.

Nice

story. Easily visible. Fast pace and good through the whole process. That's good and bad. I met too many people. That kept me from being able to completely make all the connections I wanted...

Period piece

The narrator reminds me of 1950 documentary voices. The story of this hurricane can be found in many places, this short story is a small Kodak moment of a few people’s lives and losses. It’s an appetizer for us to seek out more and learn more. Short stories are not meant to be full documentaries. It’s remarkable the intensity our hurricanes used to have and how grateful we should all be that the study of hurricanes and weather in general has matured and ultimately saved probably a million lives by now.

I’m crying

This story is definitely worth knowing even if it is very sad and quite depressing. How many years later and we haven’t really learned anything.

Fictional Account of Florida’s Hurricane

This was a fictional account of the terrible hurricane that hit the Florida Keys in the 1930s. Since it was short, there wasn’t much time to establish much character development. It was more effective describing the effects and aftermath of the hurricane. I had seen a documentary on the History Channel narrated by the late Edward Herman that is the gold standard of what happened. This would’ve been better off with a real account of what happened.

meh

too many characters for such a short story. would have been better to focus on one family.

Perfectly described

This book is excellently describing a massive movement coming toward the Gulf of Mexico and USA. It is brutal and many perish because of it. There is no where to go. Excellently puts you in the middle of hurricane. Great job!