Henry Garrett wallows in a
self-inflicted purgatory. He’s left his wife, moved into an abandoned grocery
store on Magazine Street in New Orleans and worries for his sanity because of
the endless clatter in his head, a condition he believes is linked to his
father’s mental health and death. But Hurricane Katrina changes everything in
John Gregory Brown’s “A Thousand Miles
from Nowhere.” The storm forces Garrett out of New
Orleans and he lands in a small Virginia town, not far from where he believes
his wife to be. The town’s inhabitants, the colorful owner of the hotel where
he stays, a lost manuscript and a tragic accident pulls Garrett back from
insanity and gives him a reason to be. It’s a novel of loss, longing and the
redemptive power of art.
Brown is a New Orleans native and
the author of “Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery,” “The Wrecked,” “Blessed Body
of Shelton Lafleur” and “Audubon’s Watch.” He directs the creative writing
program at Sweet Briar College in Virginia and serves as the Julia Jackson
Nichols Professor of English.
New releases
New Orleans-based writer and
teacher Lara Naughton has published a memoir titled “The Jaguar Man,” a story
of how one woman’s use of compassion helped her survive a rape and later
find peace. Naughton leads writing workshops with inmates in New Orleans’s
Parish Prison and is chair of the Creative Writing Department at New Orleans
Center for Creative Arts. She has published poetry and nonfiction and was
the recipient of the Alice Judson Hayes Fellowship in 2012 for work that addresses
social justice and the Surdna Arts Teacher Fellowship in 2009 for her work as a
teacher. As a documentary playwright, she has created work with groups such as
AIDS Project Los Angeles, the Program for Torture Victims and Resurrection
After Exoneration and has written the play, “Never Fight a Shark in Water.” Naughton will discuss and sign her memoir
beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Octavia Books of New Orleans.
Book events
The Decatur
Book Festival, the nation’s largest independent book festival, will be Friday
through Sunday, Sept. 2-4, in Decatur, Ga. For more information, visit
Cheré Coen is the
author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette,
Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country.” She writes Louisiana romances under
the pen name of Cherie Claire. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.
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