Elysian Fields

Named to Kirkus Reviews' Best of 2013.

Winner of rare "double crown" of starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. * Simpson Weems is a 36-year-old aspiring poet whose life has been on hold -- to the breaking point. All he needs to fulfill his potential is to move to San Francisco, but he's torn between his long-held dream of being a great artist and obligations to his aged, ailing mother and his emotionally volatile brother, the all-demanding Bartholomew. Will someone in his family have to die before he can get to California? And how might that be arranged? *Written "on location" in New Orleans and set shortly before Hurricane Katrina, Elysian Fields combines menace, the comic strangeness of Flannery O'Connor, and hints of magical realism to convey vivid, original characters and a Crescent City that is both recognizable and more offbeat and seductive than visitors usually see.