Salvage the Bones
Jesmyn Ward · b. 1977 · United States
Why it matters
A pregnant teenage girl and her brothers prepare their rural Mississippi home for Hurricane Katrina across twelve mythic, unsparing days. Ward's first National Book Award winner reads the storm as apocalypse and family loyalty as the only shelter.
At a glance
family sagatragedy
Difficulty 5/10medium pace272 pagesDense, mythic prose tracks a family through twelve days toward Katrina.
Deep dive
A pregnant teenager spends twelve days getting her family ready for Hurricane Katrina, and Ward builds the whole countdown out of Greek myth.
Where to go next
Jesmyn Ward · 2017Sing, Unburied, SingLvl 5Medium pace
Toni Morrison · 1987BelovedLvl 8Slow burn
William Faulkner · 1930As I Lay DyingLvl 9Medium pace
Eudora Welty · 1972The Optimist's DaughterLvl 4Medium pace
Cormac McCarthy · 1992All the Pretty HorsesLvl 6Medium pace
Gabriel García Márquez · 1967One Hundred Years of SolitudeLvl 6Medium pace