On March 12, 1888, the skies from Virginia to Maine turned an angry gray, and snow began to fall. Long-range weather forecasts didn't exist at the time, so no one knew that a howling white monster was about to strike.

This is the riveting story of a region brought to its knees by the three days and nights of hurricane-force winds and unrelenting snow. Hundreds of trains were caught in its icy grasp, tens of thousands of workers found themselves trapped between work and home, telephone and telegraph lines went dead, and streets everywhere were choked with great waves of drifting snow. Cities and towns came to an absolute, frozen standstill.

In the kind of skillful, dramatic narrative for which Jim Murphy is so well-known, readers can experience the Great Blizzard of 1888 through the eyes and words of survivors and victims alike. They will learn about the men, women, and children who battled the storm head-on, the many problems that developed when it finally stopped, and how life in the United States was forever changed by one of the most devastating natural disasters in its history.

From the dust jacket