The rift

Blurb

The Rift is a novel by author Walter Jon Williams. Published in 1999, it is a 726 page epic concerning the effects of a massive earthquake in Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Largely using the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquake as a base, he depicts the breakdown of infrastructure that would result if an earthquake of equal magnitude were to occur today.
The title of the novel is a double-entendre. It is a reference to the theory that the New Madrid quake was the result of a failed rifting of North America, but also to the deep racial and social divides that are portrayed throughout the story.