Rosy Howard survives the horrors of
Hurricane Katrina only to be separated from her mother, her only family member,
who suffers from mental illness. In a desperate attempt to locate her mother, Rose travels to
Alabama in search of her dead father’s family.
In
Tuscaloosa, walking on the side of a road, Rosy is involved in a tragic
accident with Rose Aikens and her mother on their way to deliver a carload of
Katrina supplies. It’s an event that will lure Rose, now an orphan, to Louisiana
and back, learning of both Rosy’s life and her own, all the while sharing a
pair of sneakers.
Ellen
Urbani’s comtemporary historical novel “
Landfall” delivers a elegant,
insightful look into the lives of two young women, the complexities of
motherhood and “the idea that at any given moment any one of us could be
engaged in something that someone might one day consider miraculous and we
don’t even know it,” Rose tells her mother in one scene. Without giving too
much away, “Landfall” is a heartfelt search by a guilt-ridden and confused
woman, dissecting that intricate bond between mother and child.
“The closer she got to Rosy’s
family,” Urbani writes, “the more she seemed to crash headlong into
comtemplation of her own.”
Urbani also offers a thought for those
suffering through traumatic events such as hurricanes and senseless shootings
in movie theaters; I know I took comfort in what her character used to ease her
pain. “Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in
facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to
conquer it.” Beautiful words as we relive Hurricane Katrina’s 10th anniversary.
Urbani hails from Alabama and is
the author of the memoir “When I was Elena.” She will sign her remarkable novel
Saturday at the Books-A-Million in Alexandria and at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 24, at
Octavia Books in New Orleans.
New releases
Six days after Katrina hit New
Orleans, a group of people who had stayed behind attempted to cross the
Danzinger Bridge over the Industrial Canal in an effort to escape the city’s
devastating floodwaters and find food and shelter. They were met by police who
had also remained in the city, a group trying to control the chaos that
followed the storm. What happened on that fateful Sept. 4 makes up
“The Shots on the Bridge: Police Violence and Cover-Up in the Wake of Katrina” by Associated
Press investigative journalist Ronnie Greene. Several of the residents were
killed and injured in the standoff, while members of the New Orleans Police Department
and their supervisors told a different story.
Before joining AP, Greene edited a
2014 Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation for the Center for Public Integrity.
Greene spent much of his career at the Miami Herald and is author of “Night
Fire: Big Oil, Poison Air, Margie Richard’s Fight to Save Her Town.”
Fatima Shaik has published a
collection of stories regarding Hurricane Katrina’s effect on New Orleans
titled
“What Went Missing and What Got Found.” She will launch her book at 6
p.m. Tuesday at Octavia Books in New Orleans. Shaik’s work has appeared in the Louisiana
Review, Callaloo, Tribes and others. She is included in several
anthologies of African-American literature including “Breaking Ice” by
Terry McMillan and is the author of four books set in New Orleans, including
fiction for young adults and children.
Editor
Cynthia Joyce has produced a collection of work published on the Internet
following Hurricane Katrina in
“Please Forward: How Blogging Reconnected New Orleans After Katrina.” Dave Eggers says of the book, “This is an essential
document of the state of mind of New Orleanians before and during and after
Katrina. It’s raw, it’s pained, it’s outraged, it’s heartbroken — all the
things it should be.” Joyce and contributors Deborah Cotton, Bart
Everson, Michael Homan and others will read, discuss and sign the book at
6 p.m. Thursday at Octavia Books in New Orleans.
Believe it
or not, Katrina was not the country’s deadliest natural disaster, although the final
tally is up for debate. Al Roker from NBC’s “Today” and the Weather
Channel writes about the Galveston storm of 1900, in which massive winds
and storm surge devastated the island, killing thousands of people in
“The Storm of the Century: Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story ofAmerica's Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900.”
It may be too early for Christmas
but Santa’s dealing with a hurricane in “The Legend of Peli Claus” by Nolan
“Joey” Pellerin and illustrated by Stefan Jolet. A major hurricane devastates
Louisiana in 1856 and things look bleak for Christmas that year, but Santa and
a little brown pelican named Peli Claus save the day. The book is available at
the Acadian Village General Store.
Book events
Irish Cooper discusses her recent
book, “Fabricated Looks: My Memoir,” from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. today at the
Scotlandville Branch Library in Baton Rouge. For more information, visit http://www.ebrpl.com/.
Lyrically Inclined Poetry Slam and
Open Mic, hosted by Poetic Soul, will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Black Café, 518
S. Pierce St. in Lafayette. Doors open at 6 p.m. Cover charge is $5.
The Historic New Orleans Collection
will offer a panel discussion with local artists and writers for its latest
book release and accompanying exhibit, “The Katrina Decade: Images of an
Altered City” from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the THNOC’s dedicated art
gallery, 400 Chartres St.
The book is by photographer David Spielman. A reception
will follow the presentation.
Author S.M. Schmitz will sign
copies of her paranormal romance series, “Resurrected,” set in Baton Rouge,
from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday at the Jones Creek Branch Library in Baton
Rouge. For more information, visit
http://www.ebrpl.com/.
Nancy S. Brandt, author of “Pigsty
Princess” and “Sword & Illusion,” will speak on story structure using The
Hero's Journey and three-act structure at the Heart of Louisiana Romance
Writers of America meeting beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Fairwood Regional
Library of Baton Rouge.
The New
York Times reviews Gary Rivlin's "Katrina After the Flood" and says this about the book: "What was lost won’t be entirely recovered. What will
ultimately take its place remains largely unknown. Rivlin’s valuable book is
among the first to relate, in clear and scrupulous detail, the decisions that
have brought us this far, and to identify those who made them.
Two new books have been reviewed in the L.A. Times, stories aimed to introduce older kids and adolescents to Katrina, “transforming
shared tragedy through shared hope.” They are Tamara Ellis Smith's
"Another Kind of Hurricane" (Schwartz & Wade Books, ages 9-12)
and Don Brown’s "Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans"
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ages 12-up). (We will be looking at Brown's book at the end of the month in this column.) 