City of Refuge (P.S.)
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.
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: USA, 1 September 2009
Format: Paperback / softback, 403 pages
Age Range: 0+
Other Information: black & white illustrations
Dimensions: 13.5 x 2.5 x 20.3 centimeters (0.54 kg)
Writer: Piazza, Tom
About the AuthorTom Piazza is the author of the novels City of Refuge and My Cold War, the post-Katrina manifesto Why New Orleans Matters, the essay collection Devil Sent the Rain, and many other works. He was a principal writer for the HBO drama series Treme and the winner of a Grammy Award for his album notes to Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues: A Musical Journey. He lives in New Orleans.
ReviewsIn late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, setting off a catastrophe of flooding, panic, and death on a scale never before been seen in the United States. Piazza (Why New Orleans Matters) recaptures the devastation of that storm and its aftermath through the stories of two families--one black, one white--who are driven from their homes by floodwaters and spend days as evacuees in shelters and on the road, finally ending up in Houston and Chicago, where they try to piece together temporary lives while waiting to see what the future holds. Through the Donaldson and Williams families--their memories, their longings, their determination--Piazza paints a beautiful portrait of the Crescent City, as indefatigable in spirit as its citizens. This emotional novel reads like a memoir, teeming with fear, anger, pathos, hope, determination, and love. It is absolutely essential reading for every American who watched and prayed through those terrible days. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. [This book was just picked for the One Book, One New Orleans program.--Ed.]--Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
"In unforgettable scenes of biblical consequence, Piazza dramatizes more devastatingly than any journalistic account the hurricane's shocking aftermath, aligning the failure to protect, rescue, and respect the people of the Lower Ninth with the sweeping brutality of war. . . . A story as old and heartbreaking as humankind itself."--Booklist (starred review)
"Explaining this city's inexorable, gravitational pull to outsiders who see only corruption, crime, poverty, and malarial weather is a tough order, but every page of Piazza's deeply felt story explains a larger truth about why people live where they do: because it's home, and heart."--Washington Post
"This emotional novel reads like a memoir, teeming with fear, anger, pathos, hope, determination, and love. It is absolutely essential reading for every American who watched and prayed through those terrible days."--Library Journal (starred review)