Get to Know: Stephen Markley

And see how a novelist pushes for climate action

One of our favorite pastimes at The Instigator is recommending books that can drive climate progress. One of our recent favorites was The Deluge by Stephen Markley. It is so all-encompassing, I just had to talk to the author about his thinking behind this novel and the climate crisis generally. 

Meet Stephen Markley:

  1. Stephen, this novel strikes me as very ambitious. It spans several decades (2015-2040), includes many of the climate consequences we might expect over that period of time, and engages all types of climate players. So much happens, I find it hard to describe. What do you say when people ask what your book is about?

Typically I say something like: “It’s a near-future epic of the climate crisis told through the perspectives of a large cast of characters, from an activist to a scientist to a drug addict who couldn’t care less about the climate crisis.” Like any good novel, hopefully once people are immersed in it, they discover it’s about much more than they can properly summarize.