
Salvage the Bones
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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January LaVoy
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By:
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Jesmyn Ward
Bloomsbury presents Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, read by January LaVoy.
Winner of the National Book Award
A New York Times Best Book of the 21st Century
An Atlantic Great American Novel of the Last 100 Years
"A taut, wily novel, smartly plotted and voluptuously written . . . Jesmyn Ward makes beautiful music, plays deftly with her reader’s expectations." —Parul Sehgal, New York Times
The National Book Award-winning novel from the author of Let Us Descend and Men We Reaped—a gritty but tender story of family and poverty in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina.
A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn't show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; she's fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbull's new litter, dying one by one in the dirt. Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child's play and short on parenting.
As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family—motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce—pulls itself up to face another day. A big-hearted novel about familial love and community against all odds, and a wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.
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Critic reviews
"There's something of Faulkner to Ward's grand diction, which rolls between teenspeak...and the larger, incantatory rhythms of myth. She's fearless about her passion coming out purple, and for the most part the intensity of her story carries it off." (The Paris Review)
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Raw, realistic, and human
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a beautiful portrait of life, family, and survival
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A strong piece of fiction, based on a real story, is written to make you FEEL! When a black author can make me, a white middle-aged privileged female, weep in compassion and understanding, then her writing is phenomenal. Jasmyn has done a superb job. I loved all the metaphors. I loved the Medea ‘story with the story.’ Genius.
People, If you want happy endings, just read a fairytale. This is based on a real story where there were no happy endings, especially when people live in deep poverty, and are forsaken by their community. The strength, fortitude, and connectedness of the family was very obvious. The fact that she picked the most vulnerable of the whole group, a young pregnant teen, to be the narrator was genius, especially with the connection to China and the fact that their mother had passed away. I did not think the dog scenes were overly graphic. This is a real life, people! If you can’t handle reading a book because it’s too depressing, can you imagine having to have lived through that?? In fact, research shows that reading tough fiction makes a reader more compassionate.
When Big Henry said that the baby does have a father, many fathers, I wept For his kindness.
The narrator was phenomenal too. I am grateful. I will highly recommend it. Our book club was moved and challenged. The news stories never gave the full depth and breadth of the horror and devastation.
Phenomenal
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Beautifully written, hard to read
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Really Great Read
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Edge of your seat, listening 
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A literary wonder
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Jesmyn Ward is a lyrical writer.
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Beautiful and Heartbreaking
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Poetic and poignant
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