Join Dr. Alan Berolzheimer, Vermont Humanities scholar, as he leads a community book discussion of the Vermont Reads book The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. Named after a catastrophic storm, Wanda is born into a world that’s rapidly changing. Rising sea levels and devastating weather patterns transform her coastal Florida town. As she moves from childhood to adulthood, Wanda adapts to this remade landscape, finding adventure, love, and purpose in a place largely abandoned by civilization.

Told in four parts—power, water, light, and time—The Light Pirate  is a meditation on the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness. It considers the dissolution of the human-made world, and helps us see how human connection, adaptability, and a little bit of magic might guide us to a new future.