First published 1995
Three young men navigate the treacherous currents of Louisiana life as their paths cross and their destinies become impossibly entangled. Each carries his own dreams and burdens through a landscape where hope and desperation walk hand in hand. The choices they make ripple outward, binding them together in ways none of them could foresee. Burke draws his characters with the same keen eye for human frailty that would later distinguish his New Orleans crime fiction. The humid atmosphere of Louisiana becomes almost a fourth character, pressing down on these men as they struggle against circumstances that seem determined to destroy them. What begins as separate stories of ambition and survival becomes a single tale of how ordinary people can find themselves caught in extraordinary webs of consequence. The emotional weight builds as each man discovers that his fate cannot be separated from the others.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, intertwined-lives
Setting: Louisiana
Period: 20th-century
288 pages · Paperback · Hyperion