A Dozen Favorite Novels About Flooding
(alphabetically by author, with a soundtrack by They Might Be Giants)
Realist
The Tilted World by Tom Franklin
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Deluge by Stephen Markley
Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Flood Summer by Trenton Lee Stewart
Non-Realist
The Children’s Hospital by Chris Adrian
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu
Malacqua: Four Days of Rain in the City of Naples, Waiting for the Occurrence of an Extraordinary Event by Nicola Pugliese
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
— April 18, 2026