Life in the Time of Hurricanes

Heading out in a stolen church van, a ragtag crew of Katrina survivors flees a devastated New Orleans—chasing refuge, redemption, and a second chance in the Texas desert.

In Life in the Time of Hurricanes, Rod Davis delivers a sweeping, sharp-edged novel of loss, resistance, and reinvention. Duane McGuane—ex-journalist, indie theater owner, and accidental leader—gathers a makeshift family of misfits in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, including his fierce girlfriend Maybelle, a mystic’s son, a Welsh lawyer, and a streetwise kid named Boy Jack.

Together they escape the chaos of the Convention Center and hit the road, hoping to outrun grief and start over on a mysterious ranch in Big Bend. From bayous to border towns, they navigate a fractured America haunted by racism, memory, and faith. Along the way, tales are told, identities are remade, and destinies reshaped.

Spiritual, cinematic, and deeply human, Life in the Time of Hurricanes is both a tribute to survival and a reckoning with the storms—natural and man-made—that define us.