Secessia
Kent Wascom
(Author)
Description
New Orleans, May 1862. The largest city in the confederacy has fallen to Union troops under the soon-to-be-infamous General Benjamin "the Beast" Butler. When twelve-year-old Joseph Woolsack disappears from his home, he terrifies his mother, Elise, a mixed-race woman passing for white, and enrages his father, Angel, whose long and wicked life is drawing to a close. What follows forces mother and son into a dark new world: Joseph must come to grips with his father's legacy of violence and his growing sentiment for Cuban exile Marina Fandal, the only survivor of a shipwreck that claimed the lives of her parents. Elise must struggle to maintain a hold on her sanity, her son, and her own precarious station, but is threatened by the resurgence of a troubling figure from her past, Dr. Emile Sabatier, a fanatical physician who adores disease and is deeply mired in the conspiracy and intrigue surrounding the occupation of the city. Their paths all intersect with General Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts, a man who history will call a beast, but whose avarice and brutal acumen are ideally suited to the task of governing an "ungovernable city."
A haunting tale of greed and malformed love, of slavery and desperation, Secessia weaves a vivid tapestry of a dark period in New Orleans's turbulent history.
Product Details
| Publisher | Grove Press |
| Publish Date | July 12, 2016 |
| Pages | 352 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9780802124968 |
| Dimensions | 8.2 X 5.3 X 1.0 inches | 0.8 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
A Publishers Weekly Book of the Week
A Houston Chronicle Summer Pick
"[A] vivid portrait of 1862 New Orleans . . . Smoke is still rising off Kent Wascom's spectacular debut, The Blood of Heaven (2013), but this young author is already roaring back with a sequel . . . With his rust-tooth style and flare for brutality, Wascom is one of the most exhilarating historical novelists in the country . . . This is a Gothic tale of revolution broken, rebels crippled, passions smothered but not extinguished . . . Wascom, who was born in New Orleans, has justly been compared to Cormac McCarthy, but the spirit of his new novel is touched by the lurid energy of Anne Rice and Joyce Carol Oates and even Edgar Allen Poe."--Ron Charles, Washington Post
"Five characters share what happened when New Orleans fell to Union troops in 1862, bringing the largest city in the Confederacy under the control of brutal general Benjamin 'The Beast' Butler."--Entertainment Weekly (Summer Book Preview)
"Wascom's second novel takes place in beguiling, fetid, and unruly New Orleans in the year 1862, as the city is overtaken by Union troops. . . . Though most of the characters are as passionate, selfish, and greedy as the city itself, Wascom makes every one of them a pleasure to read, effortlessly inhabiting each of their specific psychologies. . . . This is such a good yarn that readers will be totally on board with the whole rambunctious package."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The stunning opening scene sets the pace for this fascinating saga. . . . The narrative achieves an exquisite counterbalance of five shifting points of view . . . Wascom has hit his stride with this deftly descriptive historical treasure. The plot illuminates little-known areas of history and culture . . . Highly recommended for historical fiction readers."--Library Journal (starred review)
"No town is as atmospheric as New Orleans--none except for Kent Wascom's New Orleans, that is, which is so real you smell the perfume of ladies, the crimes of men, the swamps of culture. Secessia is a history lesson, a bouquet of fine pleasures, writing as rich as the South, a dazzling cavalcade of colorful, deep, and often deeply troubled characters coming together at the moment the city's grand history stopped and its destiny was set in motion."--Bill Roorbach, author of The Remedy for Love and Life Among Giants
"While some writers approach history with patience and respect, Kent Wascom prefers to take it by storm. His vivid characters, male and female, young and old, powerful and passionate, brawling and bleeding, leap from the page with such energy that one does not so much look back at them as make way for them. This is the undead past clawing down the present with a force only a novelist of unfettered imagination and great joy in life could set free among us. Kent Wascom has been likened to Faulkner and McCarthy, and his fire-breathing, idiosyncratic style stands up to that comparison. Secessia should be greeted with trumpets and fanfare. I haven't read a novel this exciting in a long, long time."--Valerie Martin, author of The Ghost of the Mary Celeste and Property
"So much historical fiction seems posed--almost as if it must bend to fit the genre--but the writing here feels more like a necessity. Secessia reads like an outpouring of fascination and love for the past . . . solidifies Kent Wascom's unique place in the literary landscape."--River City Reading
"One of the hot new names in American fiction is Kent Wascom, a 27-year-old Louisiana native fascinated with the tangled his
Earn by promoting books
