Bomb Island

Part coming-of-age summer romance, part thriller, Bomb Island is a funny and fast-paced Southern novel exploring subculture communities, survival, and found family set on an island near an unexploded atomic bomb.

Summer is in full swing on Bomb Island, Georgia. Fifteen-year-old Fish lives in a commune on the three-mile stretch of sand with his chosen family: their “mother-sage” Whistle and her white tiger, Sugar, a young man named Reef, and an old man named Nutzo, who is still missing. Fish and Whistle spend the days leading tours in their glass bottom boat out to the barrier island’s namesake, an unexploded atomic bomb. 

This is the summer when Fish meets Celia, the tattooed daughter of a troublesome local charter fisherman bent on exposing Whistle’s commune—and their illegal tiger. When a party at her dad’s place goes sour, Fish brings Celia back to Bomb Island in the hope that she’ll stay there with him. But they still can’t find Nutzo, the tiger’s behavior has become increasingly erratic, and everyone’s summer is about to take a strange, dark turn. 

Narrated by an ensemble cast of uniquely independent outsiders who have chosen counter-culture lives informed by their desires and past traumas, Bomb Island takes a rollicking journey through the weirds and wilds of Coastal Georgia. Stephen Hundley has crafted a spirited, zany novel with a big heart that examines the strength it takes to live freely and without shame.

Praise for Bomb Island

“Stephen Hundley has summoned forth a world that achieves a sense of strangeness and wonder while creating characters who are unrelentingly human in their flaws and strengths. A remarkable novel by an immensely talented young writer.” —Ron Rash, author of The Caretaker

“This is a wonderful novel—part coming of age, part family drama, part thriller—and beautifully imagined. Written with great care and precision, the characters come alive on the page in a world you won’t forget. Stephen Hundley is a writer to watch.” —Chris Offutt, author of Code of the Hills

“A beautiful, intricate knot of a book.” —Mesha Maren, author of Shae and Perpetual West

“Hundley mashes up Mark Twain and Shakespeare with a colorful adventure story about two star-crossed teen lovers. Hundley demonstrates remarkable narrative control.... Once this story sinks its claws into the reader, there’s no shaking it.” —Publishers Weekly

“A sharp, snappy novel setting a coming-of-age tale in the untamable chaos of the natural world, Bomb Island moves quickly. Hundley's nature-rich novel interrogates the thin line between love and heartbreak.” —Stephanie Turza, Booklist

“A taut novel that hints at its characters’ long histories...unpredictable and often charming.” —Kirkus Reviews