National Network for Equitable Library Service

Instructions for a Flood is a non-fiction account—in the form of personal essays and vignettes—of a life in the central interior and coastal regions of British Columbia. Inspired by her passion for exploration and a desire to reframe her understanding of the areas in which she grew up, Adrienne Fitzpatrick embarks upon a decade of reflection and personal reconciliation within her own community and the broader landscape she inhabits. Though she is accompanied by fellow travellers, workmates and guides on these journeys, Fitzpatrick is drawn to the isolation of these areas and the resilience and community this isolation necessitates. In these encounters, the stories of the people and places meld, connected to the land and to other communities by great bodies of water and remote lakes and streams. Like the water that connects and imprints upon the land, there are glints of light and beauty, as well as deep, dark places of danger to be uncovered here. Instructions for a Flood serves as a cartographic study of the strong pull of nature in places where the past is ever present—inscribing upon the land like a network of arteries and instilling in us a guidebook for being.