Afterworld

Meet four generations of the Duvalier family, for whom sugar cane is both their blessing and their curse. From patriarch Carter, the victim of an exploding manhole cover before our story begins, and his indomitable holy-roller wife Lily, to their dysfunctional sons Winston and Steven, and their equally screwed-up grandchildren, the Duvaliers - both dead and alive - would do anything to keep their secrets hidden. With their world blown apart by the winds of Katrina, the tangled lives of these unforgettable characters create a novel of unimaginable beauty, dark humor, and terrible tragedy. "Walden's proficiency with theater and libretto inform her prose. You can see the scenes on a mental stage, hear the harmonies and dissonant notes in the story's grand sweep of decades and generations and lifetimes."--Chronogram, May 5, 2014