The Floating World (Paperback)

C. Morgan Babst

ISBN 10: 1616208635 / ISBN 13: 9781616208639

Published by Workman Publishing, New York, 2018

About this Item

Paperback. Set in New Orleans, this important and powerful novel follows the Boisdore family . . . in the months after Katrina. A profound, moving and authentically detailed picture of the storms 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 Boisdore refuses to leave the city. Her parents, Joe Boisdore, an artist descended from freed slaves who became the citys 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 catatonicthe victim or perpetrator of some violence mysterious even to herself. This mystery is at the center of Babsts haunting and profound novel. Coras 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 Orleanss most vulnerable citizens. Separately and together, each member of the Boisdore clan must find the strength to remake home in a city forever changed.The Floating World is the Katrina story that needed to be toldone with a piercing, unforgettable loveliness and a vivid, intimate understanding of this particular place and its tangled past. In this gorgeous debut novel set in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, three generations of the Boisdore family suddenly fractured along the lines of race and class must figure out what they can salvage of their lives and their beloved home, and what they can build out of what remains. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781616208639

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Floating World (Paperback)
• Publisher: Workman Publishing, New York
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616208635
• ISBN 13: 9781616208639
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

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.

About the Author

C. Morgan Babst studied writing at NOCCA, Yale, and NYU. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in such journals as the Oxford American, Guernica, the Harvard Review, LitHub, and the New Orleans Review, and her piece “Death Is a Way to Be” was honored as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2016. She evacuated New Orleans one day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. After eleven years in New York, she now lives in New Orleans with her husband and child.