num_pages: 261
description: Winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction 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 while 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 comprise the novel's framework yield to the final day and Hurricane Katrina the unforgettable family at the novel's heartmotherless children sacrificing for each other as they can protecting and nurturing where love is scarcepulls itself up to struggle for another day. A wrenching look at the lonesome brutal and restrictive realities of rural poverty Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry revelatory and real.
language: English
title: Salvage the Bones
publisher: Bloomsbury