The Floating World A Novel

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Synopsis

&“Set in New Orleans, this important and powerful novel follows the Boisdoré family . . . in the months after Katrina. A profound, moving and authentically detailed picture of the storm&’s emotional impact on those who lived through it.&” —People In this dazzling debut about family, home, and grief, C. Morgan Babst takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina and the life of a great city. As the storm is fast approaching the Louisiana coast, Cora Boisdoré refuses to leave the city. Her parents, Joe Boisdoré, an artist descended from freed slaves who became the city&’s preeminent furniture makers, and his white &“Uptown&” wife, Dr. Tess Eshleman, are forced to evacuate without her, setting off a chain of events that leaves their marriage in shambles and Cora catatonic—the victim or perpetrator of some violence mysterious even to herself. This mystery is at the center of Babst&’s haunting and profound novel. Cora&’s sister, Del, returns to New Orleans from the successful life she built in New York City to find her hometown in ruins and her family deeply alienated from one another. As Del attempts to figure out what happened to her sister, she must also reckon with the racial history of the city and the trauma of a disaster that was not, in fact, some random act of God but an avoidable tragedy visited on New Orleans&’s most vulnerable citizens. Separately and together, each member of the Boisdoré clan must find the strength to remake home in a city forever changed.The Floating World is the Katrina story that needed to be told—one with a piercing, unforgettable loveliness and a vivid, intimate understanding of this particular place and its tangled past.

Book details

Author:
C. Morgan Babst
ISBN:
9781616207632
Related ISBNs:
9781616208639, 9781616205287
Publisher:
Algonquin Books
Pages:
368
Reading age:
Not specified
Includes images:
Yes
Date of addition:
2022-07-09
Usage restrictions:
Copyright
Copyright date:
2017
Copyright by:
C. Morgan Babst. 
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Categories:
Literature and Fiction, Parenting and Family