Wading Home: A Novel of New Orleans
By (Author) Rosalyn Story
Agate Publishing
Agate Publishing
7th October 2010
United States
General
Fiction
FIC
Short-listed for Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award (Fiction) 2011
Paperback
306
Width 152mm, Height 228mm
425g
When Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, chef and widower Simon Fortier knows how he plans to face the storm--riding it out inside his long-time home in the city's Treme neighborhood, just as he has through so many storms before. But when the levees break and the city is torn apart, Simon disappears. His son, Julian, a celebrated jazz trumpeter, rushes home to a New Orleans he left years before to search for his father. As Julian crisscrosses the city, fearing the worst, he reconnects with Sylvia, Simons companion of many years; Parmenter, his father's erstwhile business partner and one of the most successful restaurateurs in New Orleans; and Velmyra, the woman Julian left behind when he moved to New York. Julians search for Simon deepens as he finds himself drawn into the troubled history of Silver Creek, the extravagantly beautiful piece of land where his father grew up, and closer once again to Velmyra. As he tries to come to grips with his father's likely fate, Julian slowly gains a deeper, richer understanding of his father and the city he loved so much, while unraveling the mysteries of Silver Creek.
"New Orleans natives struggle to recover their lives as well as their property after Hurricane Katrina... Story's musical background infuses her novel with a lyrical rhythm...as engaging characters rebuild their relationships and their city. The current oil-spill crisis only makes the hopefulness of this novel more moving, if heart-wrenching." --Kirkus Reviews