This fast-paced, meticulously detailed book tells the story of the Great Bhola Cyclone, the deadliest storm in modern history, which killed 500,000 people in Pakistan, and its aftermath as told through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it.

November 1970. Over the course of just a few hours, the Great Bhola Cyclone would kill 500,000 people and begin a chain reaction of turmoil, genocide, and war. The cyclone made landfall when Pakistan was on the brink of a historic election. The fallout ignited a conflagration of political intrigue, corruption, violence, idealism, and bravery that played out in the lives of tens of millions of Bangladeshis. Carney and Miklian take us deep into the cyclone and its aftermath, told through the eyes of the men and women who lived through it, including the infamous president of Pakistan, General Yahya Khan, and his close friend Richard Nixon. The storm ripped Pakistan in two-- and led the world to the brink of nuclear war. -- adapted from jacket