Heat: A Tale of Love and Fear

The world you know is under water - so where do you go?

In a retirement home on the fringe of Miami after decades of rising seas, the remaining residents struggle with the prospect of being relocated as a hurricane approaches. The story follows an environmental scientist, an engineer, a former ballerina and her husband/manager, a couple obsessed by a comparison to the holocaust, a widow warning about the end of times, the owner of the home distraught by the consequences of his inescapable loss, and the nurse who looks to a future with a sense of cautious optimism.

All are forced to leave and seek new homes away from the excruciating heat and invading seas. As they move north, they encounter distrust, hardships and masses of refugees competing for the last habitable places on Earth. They also confront an administration unable to find a positive path to the new world resulting in a developing police state with government troops trying to control, often harshly, the movement of the refugees. The characters are all transformed by their experience as some find love, some develop new bonds while others remain resigned to their fate. But all are changed through this voyage of self-discovery as seen from the perspective of an older generation that struggles to process this climate changed world.

Matthys P. Levy is a founding principal and chairman emeritus of Weidlinger Associates. His credits as principal structural designer include the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History, the Javits Convention Center, and the Marriott Marquis Hotel, all in New York City; the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, and the La Plata Stadium in Argentina, which features his patented Tenstar Dome.Levy is co-author of Why Buildings Fall Down; Structural Design in Architecture; Why the Earth Quakes, Earthquakes, Volcanoes & Tsunamis;and Engineering the City. He is also the author of Why the Wind Blows: a History of Weather and Global Warming, published in 2007.He published his first novel, Building Eden in 2018. He is a founding director of the Salvadori Center, which teaches New York City youngsters mathematics and science through hands-on learning about the built environment. He was born in Switzerland and holds a BSCE degree from City College of New York and Master's and CE degrees from Columbia University.