Salvage the Bones
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. Meanwhile, 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 make up the novel's framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family--motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce--pulls itself up to face another day. A big-hearted novel about familial love and community against all odds, and a wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.
Source: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/salvage-the-bones-9781608196265/
Key Words/Themes
Family, survival, poverty, resilience, motherhood, loss, nature, destruction, Hurricane Katrina, coming of age, identity.
Book Review & Recommended Use in Classroom
Beautifully written, the novel partly reiterates an event most of us learned about from media coverage—Hurricane Katrina—from within. As we read, we know what is about to happen to the protagonists’ lives; it feels like watching the inevitable unfold. At the same time, Esch’s perspective (she is the narrator) is limited by her age and understanding of the world. The result is a clash between an intimate, personal story and one that affected thousands.
I think this novel is well suited to be read in class, mixing fictional and non-fictional material. I could imagine accompanying the novel with newspaper articles about hurricanes and tackling the topic of urban inequality and how natural disasters affect people differently, according to their race and class. I think it would also be interesting to explore the different representations of masculinity we encounter in the novel, such as the drunkard father, the deadbeat father, and the insightful brother.
(Alexandra, April 2025)
Sensitive Content
The main character’s emotions, self-worth and sexuality are core themes. The novel contains descriptions of sexual assault, alcoholism, domestic violence and animal cruelty. Discriminatory language.
About the Author
Jesmyn Ward, born on April 1, 1977, in Oakland, California, is one of the most celebrated writers of the 21st century, known for her lyrical and authentic portrayals of poor African American communities in coastal Mississippi. Raised in DeLisle, Mississippi, after her family returned from California following Hurricane Camille, Ward experienced economic hardship and was deeply influenced by her mother’s resilience as a house cleaner. An avid reader as a child, she later attended a private Episcopal school on a scholarship, becoming its only Black student. Ward went on to earn both a BA in English and an MA in media studies from Stanford University. She made literary history as the first woman and first Black American novelist to win the National Book Award for fiction twice, in 2011 and 2017.
