City of Refuge: A Novel [Paperback]

InCity of Refuge,a heart-wrenching novel from Tom Piazza, the author of the award-winningWhy New Orleans Matters,two New Orleans families—one black and one white—confront Hurricane Katrina, a storm that will change the course of their lives. Reaching across America—from the neighborhoods of New Orleans to Texas, Chicago, and elsewhere—City of Refugeexplores this turning point in American culture, one whose reverberations are only beginning to be understood.

In the heat of late summer, two New Orleans families—one black and one white—confront a storm that will change the course of their lives.

SJ Williams, a carpenter and widower, lives and works in the Lower Ninth Ward community where he was born and raised. Across town, Craig Donaldson, a Midwestern transplant and the editor of the city's alternative paper, faces deepening cracks in his family. When the news of the gathering hurricane spreads—and when the levees give way and the floodwaters come—the fate of each family changes forever.

The future of American fictionand perhaps Americadepends on novelists who can tell us stories like this. -Dean Bakopoulos

So detailed, so rich with New Orleans atmosphere and so believable. . . . Its like living through the storm again. And therein lies its greatness: as hard as it is for people here to read, its a book that finally explains what happened and why people in New Orleans did what they did. . . . The rest of the country needs to read this novel. -Baton Rouge Advocate

Rich with New Orleans atmosphere and so believable. . . . Its like living through the storm again.& as hard as it is for people here to read, its a book that finally explains what happened. . . . The rest of the country needs to read this novel. -Baton Rouge Advocate

While the characters . . . are fictional and the events are real,lƒ