Flags on the Bayou: A Novel

by James Lee Burke

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

On its surface a historical fiction powerhouse that digs into the brutality of slavery in the Civil War-era South, Flags on the Bayou is just as much a comprehensive portrait of Louisiana at the time. Written in gorgeous prose, this is a stunning novel that will sweep you off your feet.

From New York Times-bestselling author James Lee Burke comes a novel set in Civil War-era Louisiana as the South transforms and a brilliant cast of characters – enslaved and free women, plantation gentry, and battle-weary Confederate and Union soldiers – are caught in the maelstrom

In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is retreating toward Texas, and being replaced by Red Legs, irregulars commanded by a maniacal figure, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom.

When Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous. Wade Lufkin, haunted by what he observed—and did—as a surgeon on the battlefield, has returned to his uncle’s plantation to convalesce, where he becomes enraptured by Hannah. Flags on the Bayou is an engaging, action-packed narrative that includes a duel that ends in disaster, a brutal encounter with the local Union commander, repeated skirmishes with Confederate irregulars led by a diseased and probably deranged colonel, and a powerful story of love blossoming between an unlikely pair. As the story unfolds, it illuminates a past that reflects our present in sharp relief.

James Lee Burke, whose “evocative prose remains a thing of reliably fierce wonder” (Entertainment Weekly), expertly renders the rich Louisiana landscape, from the sunsets on the Mississippi River to the dingy saloons of New Orleans to the tree-lined shores of the bayou and the cottonmouth snakes that dwell in its depths. Powerful and deeply moving, Flags on the Bayou is a story of tragic acts of war, class divisions upended, and love enduring through it all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802161697
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	07/11/2023
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	25,726
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

JAMES LEE BURKE is a New York Times bestselling author, two-time winner of the Edgar Award, winner of the CWA Gold Dagger and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction. He has authored forty novels and two short story collections. He lives in Missoula, Montana.

Hometown:

New Iberia, Louisiana and Missoula, Montana

Date of Birth:

December 5, 1936

Place of Birth:

Houston, Texas

Education:

B.A., University of Missouri, 1959; M.A., University of Missouri, 1960

Website:

http://www.jamesleeburke.com/

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/22/2023

Set in Louisiana toward the end of the Civil War, this outstanding thriller from Edgar winner Burke (the Dave Robicheaux series) explores the corrosive effects of violence. In late 1863, Louisiana is largely under Union control, though bands of marauding Confederate soldiers roam the countryside. Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman reputed to be related to a notorious voodoo priestess, stands accused of murdering the sadistic plantation owner who assaulted her. In jail, she meets abolitionist schoolteacher Florence Milton, who takes Hannah under her wing. Eventually, the two women escape. On the run from slave catchers and a constable who doggedly pursues them, Hannah and Florence make their way across the devastated state. The chorus of narrators who recount the pair’s adventures includes Wade Lufkin, an artist and surgeon’s assistant haunted by the Union soldier he killed during battle, who crosses paths with the women and falls in love with Hannah. Burke stitches plot threads and historical details with ease, weaving it all into an urgent, propulsive story steeped in his deep personal connections to Louisiana. This is masterful. Agent: Anne-Lise Spitzer, Philip Spitzer Literary. (July)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2023-04-12
The Civil War comes to New Iberia, Louisiana, the capital of Burke’s wondrous fictional empire.

Seriously in debt to business associate Minos Suarez, Charles Lufkin rents him Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman he’s recently purchased. Things don’t go well for either Hannah, whom Suarez unmercifully assaults, or Suarez, who’s found castrated with his throat cut shortly after Hannah parts company with him. Just as Hannah is haunted by Samuel, the son from whom she was separated during the bloody Union attack on Shiloh Church, Lufkin’s nephew, Wade, who volunteered as a medical officer on the condition that he wouldn’t have to fight, is haunted by the Union officer he killed. Pierre Cauchon, the local “oversight constable for Negro legal problems” who’s already tangled with his own devils, soon comes up against another two officers on opposing sides of the conflict. Confederate Col. Carleton Hayes is a self-described man of “egalitarian views” who’s hanged a number of abolitionists and would like to hang more. Union officer Capt. John Endicott’s enfilade at Shiloh Church left Cauchon traumatized but, unlike so many of his other comrades, still alive. As schoolmistress Florence Milton takes Hannah under her wing and goes into hiding with her, Wade Lufkin challenges Cauchon to a duel with an unexpected result. All the while, conflicts rage between the two sides in the war, between ostensible allies on either side, and within every single character. In his closing acknowledgments, Burke indicates that he considers this novel his very best. Even readers who find themselves swamped by all the calamities of war may well agree that it’s his most probing examination of the enduring legacy of slavery.

A grueling, compassionate demonstration that “the devil ain’t down in a fiery pit. He’s right here.

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Flags on the Bayou: 

“[An] outstanding thriller…. Burke stitches plot threads and historical details with ease, weaving it all into an urgent, propulsive story steeped in his deep personal connections to Louisiana. This is masterful.” – Publishers Weekly  (starred review)

“The Civil War comes to New Iberia, Louisiana, the capital of Burke’s wondrous fictional empire… [readers] may well agree that it’s his most probing examination of the enduring legacy of slavery… A grueling, compassionate demonstration that ‘the devil ain’t down in a fiery pit. He’s right here.’” – Kirkus (starred review)

“A remarkable, beautiful, edgy, and haunting novel”. – Booklist

“A stunning work. Man’s addiction to darkness and evil is on horrific display, yet love’s fierce light shines through the poorest of souls. With a belief in God’s grace and redemption, they demand the courage to seek it, against all odds. Often I had to reread a sentence or paragraph, smiling and shaking my head at the power of words assembled that evoke emotional landslides no one creates like James Lee Burke. Get this now. It will take you apart and heal you. Lord, what a magnificent book!”  

 - Nils Lofgren, Member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and Member of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse Band

“James Lee Burke is an American icon, a writer of peerless prose and unmatched depth, a storyteller who faces down the darkness and guides us toward the glimmers of light. With Flags on the Bayou, he doesn't back down from the horrors of American history, but brings to life those who perpetuated unspeakable evil and those who fought nobly against it, reminding us all that while the horrors may endure, so does the potential for grace, beauty, and redemption.”

 - Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author

“No one can word-sketch an eerily beautiful scene quite like the living legend James Lee Burke, whether he’s describing bloodred bougainvillea dripping off ironwork in New Orleans or fog shrouding the Mississippi. In his latest novel, Flags on the Bayou (Atlantic Monthly Press), Civil War–era Louisiana provides the turbulent backdrop for a murder accusation, skirmishes, blossoming love, and the specter of a storm over the Gulf.” – Garden & Gun

Praise for James Lee Burke: 

“James Lee Burke is the reigning champ of nostalgia noir.” – New York Times Book Review

“You can always count on Burke to deliver a white-hot page-turner.”  —AARP Magazine

“Burke’s evocative prose remains a thing of reliably fierce wonder.” —Entertainment Weekly

“One of the finest novelists in North America.” —Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail

“James Lee Burke is one of a small handful of elite suspense writers whose work transcends the genre, making the leap into capital-L Literature.” —Bookpage

From the Publisher

After award-winning author James Lee Burke delivers his introduction, a series of introspective monologues is brought vividly to life in six stellar performances. The setting is Louisiana during the late days of the Civil War. MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, Marin Ireland, January LaVoy, and Ray Porter portray all manner of humanity, including a ragtag collection of Union and Rebel soldiers, slave owners and slave catchers, free and enslaved women, and a deranged colonel and his band of marauding Confederate killers. The narrators deliver deeply felt first-person stories that neatly intertwine, and Burke delivers the epilogue. The unique narrations and Burke's poetry weave a dreamscape of beauty, love, hatred, and horror--a reminder of the disastrous results that once arose in a divided nation. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

June 2023 - AudioFile