Hurricane Heaney is a fish-out-of-water memoir of a gay Indonesian man, Ben, who finds himself marrying into a salt-of-the-earth Irish family. Unlike many stories involving LGBTQ+ protagonists, this is not a tragic tale about a traumatic coming out, nor even about the novelty of living in a gay marriage in Ireland’s catholic bible belt.

It’s about how landing in the loving arms of a large yet close family acts as an emotional mirror to Ben’s early life in Indonesia, giving him, in fact, a safe space to process what drove him out of one family in Indonesia, and into the encircling airs of another in Ireland. Invoking the specific situation of a gay man crossing the world seeking – and finding – redemption through love, it presents a unique and uplifting ideal of what gay strength looks like.

Through tears, songs, rants and a lot of laughter, the book explores, in a humorous way, universal truths about family values, rituals, obligations, and their core foundation, love.