The Floating World

As Hurricane Katrina approaches New Orleans, Cora Boisdoré refuses to leave. Her parents, Joe Boisdoré, an artist descended from freed slaves, and his white "Uptown" wife Dr. Tess Eshleman, are forced to evacuate without her. Thus begins a chain of events that leaves their marriage in shambles and Cora catatonic -- the victim or perpetrator of violence mysterious even to herself. This dazzling debut novel is the Katrina story that needed to be told.

"This book is an achingly precise diagram of a city and family in heartbreak. Babst's writing is fluid and insidious and hauntingly beautiful. The Boisdores join some of the great families of American fiction, fascinating kinfolk through whom we watch the rise and fall and rise of New Orleans."
--Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman

"This is a rich and powerful novel, satisfying on many levels--wry, eloquent, passionate, and completely memorable."
--Valerie Martin, author of Property and The Ghost of Mary Celeste

"In powerfully lyrical prose, Morgan Babst evokes the shattered lives strewn in the wake of the levee collapses that left New Orleans in ruins. It's a story still difficult to believe--even by those of us who lived through it."
--John Biguenet, author of The Rising Water Trilogy

"This powerful and lyrical novel captures the emotional currents in New Orleans after Katrina. With an authentic and sensitive voice, Morgan Babst explores family, race, class, and the essence of disruption."
--Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Steve Jobs

"A richly written, soak-in-it kind of book....utterly affecting."
--Library Journal, starred review

"The Floating World is a thought-provoking story of class and race and trauma, told through the dramatic prism of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Babst's sentences are so fresh and alive they leap off the page. This is a beautiful and captivating book."
--Jessica Shattuck, NYT bestselling author of The Women in the Castle

"This book is an achingly precise diagram of a city and family in heartbreak. Babst's writing is fluid and insidious and hauntingly beautiful. The Boisdores join some of the great families of American fiction, fascinating kinfolk through whom we watch the rise and fall and rise of New Orleans."
--Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman

"In The Floating World, C. Morgan Babst masterfully, hauntingly, evokes the devastated and devastating landscape of post-Katrina New Orleans with images that are at once surreal and painfully real."
--Helen Phillips, author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat

"This is a rich and powerful novel, satisfying on many levels--wry, eloquent, passionate, and completely memorable."
--Valerie Martin, author of Property and The Ghost of Mary Celeste

"In powerfully lyrical prose, Morgan Babst evokes the shattered lives strewn in the wake of the levee collapses that left New Orleans in ruins. It's a story still difficult to believe--even by those of us who lived through it."
--John Biguenet, author of The Rising Water Trilogy

"This powerful and lyrical novel captures the emotional currents in New Orleans after Katrina. With an authentic and sensitive voice, Morgan Babst explores family, race, class, and the essence of disruption."
--Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Steve Jobs

[A] "powerful, important novel...This novel is New Orleans to the bone, an authentic, detailed picture of the physical and emotional geography of the city, before, during, and after the tragedy, its social strata, its racial complications, the zillion cultural details that define its character: the parrots in the palm trees, the pork in the green beans, the vein in the shrimp, 'the goddamned tacky way he flew his Rex flag out of season.' Deeply felt and beautifully written; a major addition to the literature of Katrina."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"A richly written, soak-in-it kind of book....utterly affecting."
--Library Journal, starred review

"The Floating World is a thought-provoking story of class and race and trauma, told through the dramatic prism of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Babst's sentences are so fresh and alive they leap off the page. This is a beautiful and captivating book."
--Jessica Shattuck, NYT bestselling author of The Women in the Castle

"This book is an achingly precise diagram of a city and family in heartbreak. Babst's writing is fluid and insidious and hauntingly beautiful. The Boisdores join some of the great families of American fiction, fascinating kinfolk through whom we watch the rise and fall and rise of New Orleans."
--Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman

"In The Floating World, C. Morgan Babst masterfully, hauntingly, evokes the devastated and devastating landscape of post-Katrina New Orleans with images that are at once surreal and painfully real."
--Helen Phillips, author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat

"This is a rich and powerful novel, satisfying on many levels--wry, eloquent, passionate, and completely memorable."
--Valerie Martin, author of Property and The Ghost of Mary Celeste

"In powerfully lyrical prose, Morgan Babst evokes the shattered lives strewn in the wake of the levee collapses that left New Orleans in ruins. It's a story still difficult to believe--even by those of us who lived through it."
--John Biguenet, author of The Rising Water Trilogy

"This powerful and lyrical novel captures the emotional currents in New Orleans after Katrina. With an authentic and sensitive voice, Morgan Babst explores family, race, class, and the essence of disruption."
--Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Steve Jobs

"This is a spot-on examination of race and the tumult natural disasters leave in their wake."
--Marie Claire

"A profound, moving and authentically detailed picture of the storm's emotional impact on those who lived through it."
--People

"This powerful family drama (with a mystery at its core) promises to be an emotional read. A dazzling debut about family, home, and grief, The Floating World takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina with the story of the Boisdores, whose roots stretch back nearly to the foundation of New Orleans."--Paste Magazine

"This unforgettable and timely novel tells the story of those who lost everything in the hurricane and the lives they sought to rebuild."
--RealSimple.com

"Set in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this wrenching and hypnotic book will give you chills."
--Bustle

"As hurricane victims begin the arduous process of recovering and rebuilding their communities, The Floating World offers a fictional, but very real, example of the struggles they'll face. What becomes of those harmed by natural disasters after the news cameras leave and attention is diverted to the next human crisis? That's the question at the center of The Floating World, a book that will surely give its readers empathy for all those who are putting their lives back together."
--BitchMedia

"The Floating World is the Katrina story that needed to be told, one with a piercing, unforgettable loveliness and a nuanced understanding of this particular place and its tangled past."
--Deep South Magazine

"A soulful inquiry of race, class, and family in the dawn of trauma, The Floating World doesn't just look into the eye of such a devastating storm. The storm itself becomes the lens through which the Boisdores begin to see the world more clearly. Through it, we see what loyalty truly looks like--the impossible choice to stay or leave, the terrorizing heartbreak of return--and the cost of what we hold onto, what we must release in order to survive."
--Ploughshares

"[A] powerful, important novel . . . This novel is New Orleans to the bone, an authentic, detailed picture of the physical and emotional geography of the city, before, during, and after the tragedy, its social strata, its racial complications, the zillion cultural details that define its character: the parrots in the palm trees, the pork in the green beans, the vein in the shrimp, 'the goddamned tacky way he flew his Rex flag out of season.' Deeply felt and beautifully written; a major addition to the literature of Katrina."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Babst's tightly written debut focuses on the fractured Boisdore clan, whose familial tensions are brought to a head in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina . . . this is a riveting novel about the inescapable pull of family."
--Publishers Weekly

"A richly written, soak-in-it kind of book....utterly affecting."
--Library Journal, starred review

"The Floating World is a thought-provoking story of class and race and trauma, told through the dramatic prism of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Babst's sentences are so fresh and alive they leap off the page. This is a beautiful and captivating book."
--Jessica Shattuck, NYT bestselling author of The Women in the Castle

"This book is an achingly precise diagram of a city and family in heartbreak. Babst's writing is fluid and insidious and hauntingly beautiful. The Boisdores join some of the great families of American fiction, fascinating kinfolk through whom we watch the rise and fall and rise of New Orleans."
--Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman

"In The Floating World, C. Morgan Babst masterfully, hauntingly, evokes the devastated and devastating landscape of post-Katrina New Orleans with images that are at once surreal and painfully real."
--Helen Phillips, author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat

"This is a rich and powerful novel, satisfying on many levels--wry, eloquent, passionate, and completely memorable."
--Valerie Martin, author of Property and The Ghost of Mary Celeste

"In powerfully lyrical prose, Morgan Babst evokes the shattered lives strewn in the wake of the levee collapses that left New Orleans in ruins. It's a story still difficult to believe--even by those of us who lived through it."
--John Biguenet, author of The Rising Water Trilogy

"This powerful and lyrical novel captures the emotional currents in New Orleans after Katrina. With an authentic and sensitive voice, Morgan Babst explores family, race, class, and the essence of disruption."
--Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Steve Jobs

"Set in New Orleans, this important and powerful novel follows the Boisdore family . . . in the months after Katrina. A profound, moving and authentically detailed picture of the storm's emotional impact on those who lived through it."
--People

"C. Morgan Babst's portrait of a troubled New Orleans family that fractures further during and after Hurricane Katrina is poetic and suspenseful . . . an ambitious novel."
--NPR.org

"This is a spot-on examination of race and the tumult natural disasters leave in their wake."
--Marie Claire

"This powerful family drama (with a mystery at its core) promises to be an emotional read. A dazzling debut about family, home, and grief, The Floating World takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina with the story of the Boisdores, whose roots stretch back nearly to the foundation of New Orleans."
--Paste Magazine

"This unforgettable and timely novel tells the story of those who lost everything in the hurricane and the lives they sought to rebuild."
--RealSimple.com

"In the wake of hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Babst's mystery about a southern family dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina--and a mentally ill family member who opted to stay behind during the storm--is oddly prescient."
--InStyle.com

"Set in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this wrenching and hypnotic book will give you chills with its descriptions of the flooding."
--Bustle

"As hurricane victims begin the arduous process of recovering and rebuilding their communities, The Floating World offers a fictional, but very real, example of the struggles they'll face. What becomes of those harmed by natural disasters after the news cameras leave and attention is diverted to the next human crisis? That's the question at the center of The Floating World, a book that will surely give its readers empathy for all those who are putting their lives back together."
--BitchMedia

"The Floating World is the Katrina story that needed to be told, one with a piercing, unforgettable loveliness and a nuanced understanding of this particular place and its tangled past."
--Deep South Magazine

"A soulful inquiry of race, class, and family in the dawn of trauma, The Floating World doesn't just look into the eye of such a devastating storm. The storm itself becomes the lens through which the Boisdores begin to see the world more clearly. Through it, we see what loyalty truly looks like--the impossible choice to stay or leave, the terrorizing heartbreak of return--and the cost of what we hold onto, what we must release in order to survive."
--Ploughshares

"With a gripping yet deliberate narrative infused with vivid descriptions, Babst takes her time with this story, allowing it to build slowly and methodically with an appropriate weight, enhancing the confusion wrought by the storm. In contrast, Cora's point of view significantly intensifies the pace, lending an urgency to the novel and making her narrative feel almost cyclonic. A native of New Orleans who evacuated one day before Hurricane Katrina, Babst has an intimate understanding and knowledge of the region's people and rich culture, its topography and the complex forces of race and class. The result is in a timely debut novel about the power of nature and its omnipresent potential for destruction in every aspect of our lives."
--Shelf Awareness

"Reminiscent of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, The Floating World is also a meditation on kinship and family history. Babst's novel is an invaluable record of that social devastation--and a warning of the devastations like Harvey to come."
--BookPage

"[A] powerful, important novel . . . This novel is New Orleans to the bone, an authentic, detailed picture of the physical and emotional geography of the city, before, during, and after the tragedy, its social strata, its racial complications, the zillion cultural details that define its character: the parrots in the palm trees, the pork in the green beans, the vein in the shrimp, 'the goddamned tacky way he flew his Rex flag out of season.' Deeply felt and beautifully written; a major addition to the literature of Katrina."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Babst's tightly written debut focuses on the fractured Boisdore clan, whose familial tensions are brought to a head in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina . . . this is a riveting novel about the inescapable pull of family."
--Publishers Weekly

"A richly written, soak-in-it kind of book . . . The mystery of what really happened unfolds with breath-ho...