Title: The Perfect Storm
First published: 1997
Description: It was the storm of the century, boasting waves over one hundred feet high --- a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm." When it struck in October 1991, there was a virtually no warning. "She's comin; on, boys, and she's comin' on strong." radioed Captain Billy Tyne of the Andrew Gail off the coast of Nova Scotia, and soon afterward the boat and its crew of six disappeared without a trace.
In a narrative taut with the fury of the elements, Sebastian Junger takes us deep into the heart of the storm, depicting with vivid detail the courage, terror, and awe that surface in such a gale,. Junger illustrates a world of swordfishermen consumed by the dangerous but lucrative trade of offshore fishing ---"a young man's game, a single man's game" --- and gives us a glimpse of their lives in the tough fishing port of Gloucester, Massachusetts; he recreates the last moments of the Andrea Gail crew and recounts the daring high-seas rescues that made heroes of some and victims of others, and he weaves together the history of the fishing industry, the science of the storms, and the candid accounts of the people whos lives the storms touched. 
The Perfect Storm is a real-life thriller that leaves us with the taste of salt air on our tongues and a breathless sense of what it feels like to be caught, helpless, in the grip of a force of nature beyond our understanding or control. We know, on the strength of this stark and compelling journey into the dark heart of nature, what it feels like to drown.
Subjects: Social life and customs, Foreign speakers, Andrea Gail (Boat), Andrea Gail (Ship), Open Library Staff Picks, Halloween Nor'easter, 1991, Swordfish fisheries, English language, Northeast storms, Fisheries, Natural disasters, Study and teaching, Readers (Adult), Hurricane Grace, 1991, Shipwrecks, Swordfish fishing, History, Fishers, Ships, ELT graded readers, American English, Reading Level-Grade 11, Reading Level-Grade 12, Massachusetts, social life and customs, Seafaring life, Storms, Severe storms, Survival, Tropical Storm Grace, 1997, New York Times reviewed, Alex award, Film novelizations, Manners and customs, Gloucester (Mass.), Social life & customs, Disasters
Places: New England, North Atlantic Ocean, Gloucester (Mass.)