Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

This won the National Book Award for 2011, and it is not an uplifting read. Brace yourself. It is a fiercely poetic novel that takes place in the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, Miss., in the 10 days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. On one level, “Salvage the Bones” is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be devastated by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel powerful, though, is the way the author, without a hint of pretension, enmeshes us in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars and then evokes the tenacious passion and desperation that you would expect to find in a classic tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is Esch, a pregnant 14-year-old girl, the only daughter among four siblings whose mother died during the birth of the last one. Precocious and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases that reflect the poverty that defines her community. Everything here is gritty, raw and alive. The book does not end altogether well, but people do survive, on many levels. Unique and compelling.