Deluge: The Shared Memory of the Ancient World

From ancient Mesopotamia to modern climate science, the oldest stories humanity tells are all about the same catastrophe: the flood that ended the world.

Deluge explores flood myths across cultures-from Gilgamesh and Noah to India's Manu, Greece's stone people, China's Yu the Great, and Pacific Island navigators. These aren't just stories-they're memories. Drawing on archaeology, geology, and oral traditions, this book reveals how Aboriginal Australians accurately preserved coastal geography from 10,000 years ago, how the end of the Ice Age created real catastrophes our ancestors survived, and how every culture developed its own answer to the same essential questions: What do we save? How do we survive? But Deluge is not just about the past. As sea levels rise again, the ancient myths offer more than history-they offer warning, wisdom, and a template for survival. The waters are rising. This time, we're causing them. The only question is whether we'll listen to what our ancestors learned when they survived the last great flood. A sweeping exploration of myth, memory, and meaning that connects humanity's oldest stories to our most urgent crisis.