Ciera Horton McElroy: Reading and Signing

About the Book

It’s November 1, 1961, in a small town in South Carolina, and nuclear war is coming. Ten-year-old Wilson Porter believes this with every fiber of his being. He prowls his neighborhood for Communists and studies fallout pamphlets and the habits of his father, a scientist at the nuclear plant in town.

Meanwhile, his mother Nellie covertly joins an anti-nuclear movement led by angry housewives—and his father, Dean, must decide what to do with the damning secrets he’s uncovered at the nuclear plant. When tragedy strikes, the Porter family must learn to confront their fears—of the world and of each other.

About the Author

Ciera Horton McElroy is the author of Atomic Family, named a 2023 Great Group Read by the Women’s National Book Association and short-listed for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. She lives in the Midwest, where she writes and runs a boutique film marketing agency.