By the time THE RAIN MERCHANT, WILSON CORVUS, and his estranged son, CALVIN, arrive in Verity, Oklahoma in the spring of 1935, things are already dire: The Great Depression has hollowed out the economy, destructive farming practices and drought have stripped all the moisture from the topsoil, and deadly sandstorms blacken the skies. Still, there are those who refuse to give up on the place they call home.

Desperate for a savior, the people of Verity put their faith in the spellbinding Rain Merchant, who promises to bring rain down from the heavens. Even Calvin, tasked with building Wilson’s mysterious weather-machine, is drawn in by his father’s persuasive powers, despite knowing the truth: that their entire operation is a con.

But after Cal meets a spirited local nurse named NELL WILES, and realizes just how bleak the circumstances are in Verity, he begins to feel conflicted. As the dust storms grow more severe, and after Cal learns that FBI agents are closing in on them, he confronts his father only to learn that their con is actually a pretext for Wilson’s unhinged, one-man war with God.

The FBI agents arrive in Verity to arrest The Rain Merchant and his son, only to find Wilson at the top of the tower built for his weather-machine, unleashing a massive pyrotechnic onslaught, and raving at the largest dust storm in history. When an agent turns his gun on Cal, the future he imagined he might have had with Nell seems like it will never happen. And although they are trapped at the epicenter of the worst man-made climate crisis the world has ever known, Nell and Cal have face the unthinkable...

The Rain Merchant

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