Salvage the Bones

Winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Eschs father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesnt show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isnt much to save. Lately, Esch cant keep down what food she gets shes fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbulls new litter, dying one by one in the dirt, while brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on childs play and short on parenting. As the twelve days that comprise the novels framework yield to the final day and Hurricane Katrina, the unforgettable family at the novels heart—motherless children sacrificing for each other as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce—pulls itself up to struggle for another day. A wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.