Description John Gregory Brown's debut novel examines family, race, and faith in a heartbreaking tale of identity, devotion, and regret.
The story centers on the Eagen family of New Orleans, Irish Catholics of mixed blood in a city where race defines destiny.
In 1965 Thomas Eagen and his twelve-years-old twins, Meredith and Lowell, abruptly drive off, leaving his second wife, Catherine, and their home.
As they cross Lake Pontchartrain, a section of the bridge collapses, injuring Murphy Warrington, an African American man who once worked for Thomas's father.
Murphy becomes the catalyst for a series of revelations about Thomas's light-skinned black mother and the reasons she abandoned her husband and son when Thomas was an infant.
University Of South Carolina Press Decorations in a ruined cemetery, paperback/john gregory brown
