Salvage the Bones

from laytonwoman3rd

A tough, beautiful novel about people living on the edge ---the edge of poverty, of society, of survival. This story is as powerful as Hurricane Katrina, which features prominently in it. Good fortune is not something the Batiste family knows much about. Fifteen-year-old Esch, the narrator of the...

from EBT1002

This novel is not about Katrina, but it's set in a coastal Mississippi during the days leading up to Katrina. It's about a family living in the wretched grip of deep poverty, and their fierce love, unflinching loyalty, and willingness to sacrifice for one another. Fifteen-year-old Esch and her th...

from fuzzy_patters

Salvage the Bones centers on the character, Esch, who is a teenage girl in a family full of boys, one of whom, Skeetah, raises a fighting pitbull named China. The novel begins with China giving birth, which mirrors the seminal moment in the family's life, when their mother died giving birth to he...

from SandDune

I was apprehensive about reading this book as I'd heard rumours about the dog-fighting, and thought that I might struggle with those scenes. But in the end, rather than being shocked by the dog-fighting, what I found truly shocking was the extreme poverty and lack of opportunity which was the lot...

from msf59

"She left us as dark Gulf and salt-burned land. She left us to learn to crawl. She left us to salvage. Katrina is the mother we will remember until the next mother with large, merciless hands, committed to blood, comes." A storm is coming. Esch is fifteen and she lives with her three brothers in ...