World Without Summer

By: Nicholas Day

Published by Random House, 2025-09-09

<b>The true story of how a massive catastrophic eruption plunged the world into darkness, altering the global climate and inspiring the likes of Mary Shelley’s <i>Frankenstein</i>—from the award-winning author of <i>The Mona Lisa Vanishes </i>and featuring black-and-white illustrations throughout.</b><br><br><b>“A tour-de-force for our times . . . At once a heart-stopping tale of climate change and a profoundly hopeful call to action.”—Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal winner for <i>The One and Only Ivan</i></b><br><br><i>The world was upside-down. The wind was fire. The sky was ash. The rain was rock.</i><br><br>A couple of hundred years ago, on a quiet Indonesian island, a volcano called Tambora erupted with a force and violence that changed history.<br><br>It tore apart the island, and in the months and years that followed, its fallout tore apart the world. The sun refused to shine; the rain refused to stop. Everything that everyone assumed would always be there—a world that made sense, a climate that made sense—was suddenly gone.<br><br>From this riot of thunder and lightning, a young woman named Mary Shelley conceived of a scientist and his cursed creature. From the nightmare of Tambora, she wrote a nightmare of a book: <i>Frankenstein</i>—a terrifying reminder of how much damage we humans might do, without even realizing it.<br><br>This is the story of a volcano that changed the world and a creature that changed us.<br><br>Once upon a time, everything was different. And no one knew if it would ever be the same.<br><br>In this masterful work, Nicholas Day, author of the Sibert Award–winning <i>The Mona Lisa Vanishes</i>, brings us a story taken from the archives but seemingly scripted for us today: a tale of climate change and human folly and hope—and what happens when the world suddenly goes wrong.