Read Around the World: New Orleans

Although our RTW trip is over, I still love reading books set in places I visit, and that includes domestically. Last month, Jonathan and I visited New Orleans (our first time in Louisiana!). I began searching for books set in New Orleans to accompany me on our trip, and of course I found way more than I could read before we went, but I hope to get to them eventually. Below, I’m sharing a list of books set in New Orleans and/or written by authors from the Big Easy.

*Note: I haven’t personally read all these books yet, but I will note which are still on my TBR.

Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table by Sara Roahen

While I was searching for “books set in New Orleans,” Gumbo Tales came up again and again as the book people were most glad they read before visiting, and I see where they are coming from! Although the author is not from New Orleans originally, she moved to the city as a food writer, and her book served as a great menu of what to eat and where to go in the city.

The book is a bit dated (2009), so while she does point out many establishments that never re-opened after Hurricane Katrina, you’ll find there have been more places that have closed since then. However, the book is still supremely useful for learning about the different dishes in New Orleans, including their history and cultural significance. (I probably wouldn’t have known to order a fried oyster po’boy without reading this book, and it was my favorite po’boy of the trip!)

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

Audiobook available on Libro.fm

It’s been a few years since I read this YA novel, but I remember LOVING it when I did. Ruta Sepetys is an excellent YA historical fiction author, and though I’ve also read her more popular Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea, her New Orleans-set Out of the Easy is far and away my favorite. This engaging novel features the 17-year-old daughter of a sex worker who wants to escape the Big Easy and lead her own life. After a mysterious death in the French Quarter, all her plans and dreams are put at risk.

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

This memoir by a native New Orleanian won the 2019 National Book Award in Nonfiction, and it’s the book I’m most disappointed in myself for not reading before our trip. Because I haven’t gotten to it yet, here’s a brief publisher description of The Yellow House: “A brilliant, haunting and unforgettable memoir from a stunning new talent about the inexorable pull of home and family, set in a shotgun house in New Orleans East.”

The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Audiobook available on Libro.fm

The Revisioners is Sexton’s sophomore novel and alternates between a 1924 Louisiana farm and present-day New Orleans. Featuring different generations of the same family, Sexton describes life for formerly enslaved people and their families in Louisiana at the peak of KKK membership (the 1920s) as well as the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma and colorism on Black families living in New Orleans today.

Sexton’s debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, is also set in New Orleans and follows three generations of a Black family during World War II, the 1980s and after Katrina. Personally, I liked The Revisioners better, which is why I’m featuring it here, but A Kind of Freedom might be the better choice for you if you want to learn more about contemporary New Orleans.

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Abridged audiobook available on Libro.fm

I had to read this classic play while visiting the Crescent City. Set during a steamy summer in New Orleans, A Streetcar Named Desire features a young woman who comes to the city to stay with her sister and brother-in-law for an indefinite period of time after experiencing some trouble at home. This was definitely a dark play, and I enjoyed listening to the Novel Pairings podcast episode when I was done to hear about the play from the perspective of two former English teachers.

Snippets of New Orleans by Emma Fick

I paged through this “whimsical” illustrated book about New Orleans while visiting Octavia Books, and I thought it was the ideal mix of charming and informative. This would be a great gift for someone moving to New Orleans as a guide to the city or someone moving away to keep on their coffee table as a nostalgic memento.

Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen

Audiobook available on Libro.fm

Something I didn’t know about New Orleans until I read Gumbo Tales is that there’s a large Vietnamese population in the city, largely due to Vietnamese refugees who arrived in the city after the Fall of Saigon. According to the publisher, Things We Lost to the Water is a “captivating novel about an immigrant Vietnamese family who settles in New Orleans and struggles to remain connected to one another as their lives are inextricably reshaped.”

Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje

Audiobook available on Libro.fm

I visited Faulkner House Books during our trip to NOLA (of course), and chose this slim novel from their display of local literature. Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan-Canadian writer (probably best known for The English Patient), and this novel is set in the Storyville district of New Orleans at the turn of the century. I haven’t gotten to it yet, but I’ll be sure to update this post when I do.

Ramadan Ramsey by Louis Edwards

Audiobook available on Libro.fm

According to the publisher: “The Guggenheim Fellowship and Whiting Award-winning author Louis Edwards makes his long-awaited comeback with this epic tale of a New Orleans boy whose very creation is so filled with tension that it bedevils his destiny before he is even born. Spanning from the Deep South to the Middle East, Ramadan Ramsey bridges multiple countries and cultures, entwining two families who struggle to love and survive in the face of war, natural disasters, and their equally tumultuous, private mistakes and yearnings.” Any time I see the promise of “multiple countries and cultures” in a book description, I’m intrigued, so I think I need to move Ramadan Ramsey up on my TBR!

Never Tell by Selena Montgomery (a.k.a. Stacey Abrams)

Audiobook available on Libro.fm

Did you know political figure Stacey Abrams also writes romance novels? For years, she has written under the pen name Selena Montgomery, and many of her romance novels are now being reissued. Never Tell is a romantic suspense novel about a criminal psychologist and journalist who are brought together during the search for a serial killer in New Orleans. (Although I have read Abrams’ recent Supreme Court thriller While Justice Sleeps, I have not read any of her romance yet.)

The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Audiobook available on Libro.fm

Yet another book on my TBR: “Deeply rooted in the culture of New Orleans, this collection of raucous stories reveals the hidden corners of a place we thought we knew.” Ruffin was born in New Orleans and is a professor at LSU. His debut novel, We Cast a Shadow, is set in an unnamed city in the American South.

The Quarter Storm by Veronica G. Henry

This upcoming fantasy novel releases on March 1, 2022. According to the publisher description: “A practitioner of Vodou must test the boundaries of her powers to solve a ritual murder in New Orleans and protect everything she holds sacred.” I’m also interested in reading Henry’s previous fantasy novel, Bacchanal, which is set in a traveling carnival during the Depression-era South (including Louisiana, though not specifically New Orleans).

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

Audiobook available on Libro.fm

This book is not set in New Orleans, but I’m including it here because it very much influenced our trip. How the Word is Passed tells the story of slavery in the U.S. by focusing on different locations with historical significance, one of which is the Whitney Plantation. Whitney is located less than an hour’s drive from New Orleans and prides itself on being “the only museum in Louisiana with an exclusive focus on the lives of enslaved people.”

Unlike other plantation tours in the American South, which tend to focus on the white owners, Whitney focuses on the lives of the enslaved. It’s quite easy to book a tour bus when in New Orleans that will drop you off at Whitney and pick you up 2-3 hours later. (We booked this tour through Viator.) Typically, there are guided tours at Whitney, but because of COVID-19 we downloaded an app and listened to an audio tour, which I found to be quite good. This tour is a must-do when visiting New Orleans.

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What are you favorite books set in New Orleans and/or written by New Orleans authors? Leave your recommendations in the comments!

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Featured image: Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans, Louisiana (December 2021)