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

“Evocative and eccentric…delivers much more than an offbeat adventure about a tribe of misfits. Gritty, primeval and hauntingly human, Bomb Island is sometimes funny and other times sad. It’s an action-packed thrill ride infused with depth and tenderness.” —Leah Tyler, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“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

“Filled to the brim with quirky characters with even quirkier names—and, yes, an actual bomb—as well as a live tiger, Bomb Island does not disappoint when it comes to creating tense situations.” —Abby N. Lewis, Chapter 16

“With stunning images, evocative character portrayals and a snaking, edge-of-the-seat story, Bomb Island felt like a mix between Lord of the Flies and Swiss Family Robinson—intoxicating coming-of-age told between loved ones over a crackling fire on the beach.” —Frankie Martinez, Southern Review of Books

“The pulse of Bomb Island, its attention to how love goes awry, how violence can feel like a shortcut to adulthood, and how much is lost (and won) when we finally do grow up, lingers long after the last page. It’s a beautiful story about moving into the future and reconciling with the past, even when this act of self-integration feels like a tragedy.” —Willem Marx, Washington Independent Review of Books