by Dave Eggers
First published 2009
Abdulrahman Zeitoun watches his wife Kathy and their four children evacuate New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina bears down on the city in August 2005. The house painter decides to remain behind to protect their business and property. After the storm passes, Zeitoun paddles through the flooded streets in a canoe, rescuing stranded animals and bringing supplies to elderly neighbors who couldn't escape. For days he moves through the submerged city like a guardian angel, helping where he can. Then on September 6th, armed police officers storm into his house and arrest him at gunpoint. Zeitoun finds himself trapped between two American disasters: the government's failed response to the hurricane and the paranoia of the war on terror. His family's ordeal reveals how quickly ordinary citizens can become suspects in their own country.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, american, contemporary, non-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: injustice, ordinary-people-in-extraordinary-circumstances, social-commentary
Setting: New Orleans
Period: 2005
342 pages · Hardcover · McSweeney's
Content warnings: abuse, racism