What the Water Knows

In the autumn of 1909, Tobias leaves Salem on a southbound train with a satchel of books, his grandfather’s name, and no clear idea of who he intends to become. He is leaving behind a city that has grown too small, a mother whose piety leaves no room for mercy, and the memory of someone lost whose absence has made everything else impossible.New Orleans receives him the way it receives everyone and what finds him there is something he did not come looking for. A world that operates in the spaces between what is permitted and what simply is. And a man who sees him clearly — more clearly than Tobias has ever allowed himself to be seen — and does not look away.When Tobias is left for dead in the bayou, the man who loves him answers with a fury that cannot be walked back. What follows is not justice. It is consequence. And consequence, in Louisiana in 1909, does not negotiate. Read more