In a starred review, Booklist wrote, “In October 1991, a freak convergence of weather—a storm from the west, a cold front from the north, and a hurricane from the south—resulted in the Halloween Storm, a once-in-a-century gale that wreaked havoc on the North Atlantic,

As befits a story so huge, author Sebastian Junger follows a diverse array of people through it, including fishermen, sailors, and rescue personnel.

But it’s the story of the doomed swordfish boat Andrea Gail, whose crew was never found, that is the most compelling, and it is here that Junger shows the strength of his craft. In re-creating what might have happened to the six-man crew, he seamlessly weaves known facts with everything from interviews with survivors of other storms to explanations of fishing-boat architecture and the science behind drowning, with results so unforgettable that we can well imagine their final moments.”

The film version starring, among others, George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, and John C. Reilly was released in 2000 and is available for just shy of $4.00 from Google Play, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV.