Station of the Birds

Bomb magazine founder Sussler’s lush debut follows a prodigal son’s return to his Louisiana hometown. Daryl Munroe graduated from college in New Orleans six years earlier, but he still hangs out at his former frat house, where he affects an idle rich boy image while hustling as a drug dealer. Meanwhile, over in swampy St. Martin Parish, Daryl’s childhood friend Michael Duvet makes a living as a hunting guide. Daryl returns to St. Martin after his father, Joseph, who manages Daryl’s late mother’s sugarcane fortune from a plantation that once relied on slavery, announces Daryl will not receive his expected inheritance. Narrative tension arises from Daryl and Michael’s reunion, as Michael’s jazz musician father disapproves of Daryl because of his criminal activity, while Joseph thumbs his nose at the poorer Duvet family. The novel’s strongest impact comes from its sense of place, which Sussler effectively portrays through personification (“New Orleans shimmies... it’s all sweat and longing, the sweet smell of decay and wild, wild wails”). Throughout, she lays bare how the region was shaped by slavery, whether in the Garden District’s slave quarters turned guesthouses or the door once used by enslaved people in Daryl’s family home. It’s a colorful tour through Louisiana’s ill-gotten fortunes and vibrant ways of life. Agent: Madison Smartt Bell, Ayesha Pande Literary. (Jan.)